"You live with your thoughts -- so be careful what they are." (Eva
Arrington)

Perhaps the most powerful of all distinctions between human beings and other living organisms is the ability to think. Not just in jumping from one conclusion to another or in relating one event to the next, but even more the extent to which thoughts sometimes acrobatically balance on the edge of pure fantasy.
It is not yet clear to me whether men and women master the skill of deep, concentrated thinking, and the process of linking experiences to the same degree: It appears to me that women have a far broader capacity to get lost in a labyrinth of thought processes that may blur the real course of events or relationships, and either elevate them to a state of unadulterated ecstasy or demolish them to absolute devastation.

Here's a general illustration: When someone explains an issue or event to a man, he will most likely register the information and draw on his sense of logic to do some inner verification regarding the validity and reliability of what is presented. Depending on the outcome of his validation process he
will determine his attitude toward the provided information, and
subsequently move on.

A woman, on the other hand, will take the provided information and test it on a multitude of grounds, some of which are:
1. The importance she assigns to the person who shared the information with her.
2. The importance she assigns to the subject shared with her.
3. The possible ways this information-as presented-may affect her life or her environment.
4. All the possible outcomes this information may lead to after digestion.
5. All the possible consequences these digested outcomes may sort to whatever or whomever she considers important.

Points 4 and 5 may expectedly require an intense and complicated thought process, varying in duration anywhere from one single minute to an entire month or longer.

Here's a possible reason why women are going through such a complicated evaluative procedure: they are very often monitored by their intuition and their moods. Depending on the state of these two forces they will assess any presented piece of information in a positive, neutral, or negative light.

It's amazing-even to me-how the same set of words uttered by the same person can now lift me up to ultimate happiness, yet in the next instant become shaded by a scale of grays that cast an ugly gloom.

The set of statements above represent but one of the many facets of how thinking influences human beings depending on their sex, environment, culture, or mood. The power of thoughts has been known to lead to great misunderstandings, to amazing solutions of seemingly unsolvable mysteries, and even to the elimination of people who had no clue what they were really guilty of.

Thoughts are a powerful determinant of one's decisions. They can lead a person to the most flabbergasting behaviors or acts that will leave the ones around him or her wondering. And this does not only count for personal matters. It is just as influential in work settings, as Baudjuin illustrates with the quote: "No matter how hard you work for success if your thought is
saturated with the fear of failure, it will kill your efforts, neutralize
your endeavors and make success impossible."

It may therefore not be too strange that numerous attempts to analyze a person's thoughts have led to the diagnosis of insanity thus far. But, insane or not, it remains a fact that different people can come to the most diverging conclusions with the same set of information given.  The reason?
"We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make our world" (Buddha). And don't we all have our own unique thoughts?

Thoughts: nothing to joke about!!!

Burbank, California; May 18, 2003; Joan Marques, MBA, Doctoral Student (URL: http://www.joanmarques.com)

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About the Author:

Joan Marques, holds an MBA, is a doctoral candidate in Organizational Leadership, and a university instructor in Business and Management in Burbank, California. You may visit her web site at www.joanmarques.com