The surprising habits of original thinkers by Adam Grant

A psychologist, Adam Grant, has been studying people he referred to as "originals" who
are nonconformists that drive creativity and drive change in the world. He says that original
thinkers are noted, not for their IQ or talents, but for their habits. According to Grant, the first
habit of the original thinkers is procrastination. This refers putting things off or the avoidance of
tasks, deliberately looking for distractions. But for Grant, this was a merit for creativity for the
reason that when one procrastinates, they turn to other tasks yet still holding on to or working on
the task at the back of one’s mind. This enables the idea to flourish, even bloom into other ideas,
as you delay the piece of work to be done. He conducted an experiment to test if procrastinating
and creativity have a relationship and it was found that “precrastinators” are less creative than
those who procrastinate often. I think that it’s because it paves way for improvement, for
different and better ideas to arise.

Furthermore, the next habit is that originals doubt, like all of us do, but they manage it
differently. He mentioned that there are two types of doubt, self-doubt and idea-doubt. The
former may be mind-numbing but the latter can be stimulating. This kind of doubt makes us
resourceful and gives us the opportunity to check our options, even develop back up plans which
eventually make our tasks, ideas, better. This leads to the following habit of originals, they do not
settle for the defaults. This was laid down as an example on web browsers. Originals take
initiative to find better options other than what is laid out before them. Moreover, the next habit
is “Vuja de”, the opposite of deja vu, seeing something you’ve looked at before several times but
in a new and fresh way. This enables you to open to possibilities you could never have
considered or even heard of before. Lastly, originals are afraid of failing but are more afraid of
failing to try. As Adam Grant has mentioned, “The greatest originals are the ones who fail the
most, because they’re the ones who try the most.” The more bad ideas you have, the more you’d
want to generate good ones.

To sum it all up, to be an original thinker, one may or may not procrastinate, one can
doubt, not settle or strive for more, shift one’s perspective, and one should be resilient to failure.
These habits can hack our mindsets to enable us to strive better and explore our options to work
more efficiently. I’d like to become an original thinker, to become more creative in my thoughts
and in my actions. To have space for doubt in my mind which would lead to unique and excellent
ideas. To be afraid of regretting my inactions, having the courage to try again and again. And
finally, to become an improver and have much creativity to impose into the world.