Thought Vs Idea

Differentiating between the two

You may have read a recent post of mine where I discussed about thought vs action. About how both characteristics are connected, not being able to be separated, and are essential for making the best decisions or to the most optimal. 
However, when describing thought, I was quite general. Thought in itself can be broken down into sub-categories and so I feel that I need to go into more detail. For this post I'm writing about thought vs idea. 

Now a thought is a very general term and looking back at some of my previous posts where I have used the term, I think I should have been more specific. But maybe not, I'll explain more later on.

Thought and idea can be used in a number of manners, but generally they should be referred to as what they actually are. Thought is a vague-term in a sense, as there are lots of other words like; idea, perception, rationale, etc, that get confused with it. Thought can be anything that pops into your head, from the serious, all the way to the down-right hilarious, it's all thought. Thought isn't something that is occasional, it's all the time. Whatever we're doing we're thinking, consciously and subconsciously. It's not something that can be turned 'on' or 'off' because it's a constant.

Idea seems to be a kind of sub-category to thought as it were. It is linked to thought but yet also to problem-solving. An idea is formulated inside of your head when you are looking for a solution to something, hence when someone is said to have a 'bright idea', it is normally a good solution to a problem that is facing them. It is the mind's natural problem solver.

Applying thoughts and ideas

Now thought is a product of thinking, and thought in itself is often categorised into certain types of thinking. Depending on your culture and how you were brought up will also affect how you think, and what thoughts are deemed to be acceptable or not.

I did state before (three paragraphs before) that thought is a general concept and cannot be helped. It can be random yet focused, and it never stops. However, when I have mentioned in previous posts about thought being used in certain decisions or dilemmas, I'm referring to applied thought. When I talk about applied thought, I am talking about the conscious effort you put into a thought and then give it time to deliberate over.

We as people can have lots of conscious thoughts, it doesn't mean that they are all going to be helpful or beneficial for us. A thought is a tiny bit of information your brain processes before moving on to the next bit of information. So some effort on our behalf will be needed to make something of the thought to get it to a stage where we are going to see a positive effect.

This is where time comes into it and where deliberation comes in. When a conscious thought comes into your head, taking the time to deliberate upon it and taking factors into consideration, and then looking at how you may apply the thought into your life and how it may be good for you - that's what I mean about applied thought, and is what I'm normally talking about when I mention thought in other posts I have written, or may write in the future.

Applying ideas to your life is linked into applied thought. Like thought being closely related to action, so to is thought and idea. Idea is the next stage you take after applied thought has been completed.

Applied thought is like the stepping stone to idea, because after you've completed applied thought, your mind will naturally come up with an idea(s) to help form a solution to the problem. This is how idea ties in with applied thought and how it cannot be separated. 

Sometimes you may have an idea that just pops into your head which you perceive to have come from nothing. Well whilst it may seem this way, it didn't. Ideas can only come from thought, you may have been deliberating on something for hours before an idea comes to you, or you could have been deliberating for a mere second, but idea does relate to thoughts, and however fleeting a thought may have been, idea can be the product of the most fleeting of thoughts. An idea can also be the product of a thought that was thought about in the past.

A few days ago when I discussed the relationship between thought and action, I didn't mention anything about idea, which is the stage in-between thought and action. Applied thought leads to idea and idea leads to action. It is the idea which arrives from thought, action is applied upon, linking all three things together.