Think Again

D. Stay Open to Rethinking Your Future
27. Throw out the ten-year plan. What interested you last year might bore
you this year—and what confused you yesterday might become exciting
tomorrow. Passions are developed, not just discovered. Planning just one
step ahead can keep you open to rethinking.
28. Rethink your actions, not just your surroundings. Chasing happiness
can chase it away. Trading one set of circumstances for another isn’t always
enough. Joy can wax and wane, but meaning is more likely to last. Building
a sense of purpose often starts with taking actions to enhance your learning
or your contribution to others.
29. Schedule a life checkup. It’s easy to get caught in escalation of
commitment to an unfulfilling path. Just as you schedule health checkups
with your doctor, it’s worth having a life checkup on your calendar once or
twice a year. It’s a way to assess how much you’re learning, how your
beliefs and goals are evolving, and whether your next steps warrant some
rethinking.
30. Make time to think again. When I looked at my calendar, I noticed that
it was mostly full of doing. I set a goal of spending an hour a day thinking
and learning. Now I’ve decided to go further: I’m scheduling a weekly time
for rethinking and unlearning. I reach out to my challenge network and ask
what ideas and opinions they think I should be reconsidering. Recently, my
wife, Allison, told me that I need to rethink the way I pronounce the word
mayonnaise.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The expression of gratitude is something that probably needs less rethinking
and more doing. I want to start by commending literary agent extraordinaire
Richard Pine for inspiring me to rethink my audience and continue
broadening my lens beyond work, and editor par excellence Rick Kot for
believing in and developing the potential of these ideas. As always, it was a
dream to work with the two of them, and they offered the ideal blend of
challenge and support.
The accuracy of this book was enhanced by the meticulous work of two
professional fact-checkers. Paul Durbin applied his eagle eye to every
sentence, working with remarkable thoroughness and alacrity. Andy Young
carefully reviewed every page and followed up with a number of key
sources.
The content and tone of the book benefited immeasurably from the
early readers in my challenge network. Marissa Shandell and Karren
Knowlton were exceedingly generous in reading more chapter drafts than
any human should endure and unfailingly brilliant in improving them. I
cannot thank them enough for enriching every section of the book with
leads on characters, suggestions on flow, and refinements on language.
Marissa went the extra mile to enliven concepts and synthesize practical
takeaways. Karren went above and beyond to amplify complexity and
diversify thought.
Reb Rebele, whose taste in ideas and prose is second to none, dished
out the tough love that the early chapters needed and brought the seasoning
that was missing from the denouements. Queen of signposting Grace
Rubenstein offered sage guidance for helping readers see the forest in the
trees and recognize thinking again as a habit that’s both timely and timeless.
Dan O’Donnell helped me de-escalate my commitment to a series of dead
ends and composed the written version of jaunty music to animate several
key studies and stories.

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Lindsay Miller—the human equivalent of the corpus callosum—led the
cheer for more conversational snippets and richer illustrations of how the
preacher, prosecutor, politician, and scientist waltz into our psyches. Nicole
Granet expanded my thinking around how rethinking is relevant to every
domain of life. Sheryl Sandberg sharpened the structure by convincing me
to introduce the core idea before the organizing framework, and
underscoring the value of well-placed bookends. Constantinos Coutifaris
made the vital point that I needed to explore when it’s persuasive to preach,
prosecute, and politick. Natalia Villarman, Neal Stewart, and Will Fields
shared their expertise on antiracism. Michael Choo motivated me to go
back to the drawing board on a chapter that wasn’t working. Justin Berg
lent his creative forecasting skills to select and develop my most novel and
useful insights, and also introduced me to the satisfaction of reverse
alliteration (where sequential words share a last letter or syllable). Susan
Grant, ever the English teacher, corrected grammar, caught typos, and
fought with me about the Oxford comma. Sorry, Mom, that’s one thing I