Clarity at the Speed of Thought: The Real Superpower of Augmented Thinking
So, how many tabs are open in your “mental browser”?
At a certain point in your career – or life – it starts to feel like your brain is running an ever-increasing number of background apps. Journaling sessions might leave you with more questions than answers. Brainstorming meetings spiral into hours-long rabbit holes of insignificant detail. And in the push to keep up with it all, a dream project gets shelved – not because it’s wrong for you, but because it’s simply too much: too big, too messy, too complex to untangle.
Sound familiar?
You’re not lazy. You’re not falling behind. You’re not too slow, or chaotic, or unmotivated, or scatterbrained. You, my overachieving friend, are just thinking without scaffolding, and that makes everything harder than it needs to be.
You don’t need to upgrade your brain – you just need a better surface to think against.
Here's the reframe:
Imagine you’re swimming laps – following a train of thought.
Something distracts you, and you lose your rhythm.
When you try to pick it back up, you’re marooned in the middle of the pool. No push off, no momentum, just you trying to get back in the groove.
Now imagine a wall appears, right there in the middle of the pool. Not to stop you, but to give you a solid launchpad. That’s what AI can be. Not a shortcut or a crutch – just a well-placed wall that helps you harness your own power more efficiently. You’re still the one swimming, but now you’re kicking off of something that helps you move forward faster.
This is exactly the epiphany I had the day I opened ChatGPT to untangle a messy draft, and ended up breaking through a block that had held me back from launching something I’d been thinking about for months.
The Moment it Clicked
My LinkedIn feed was overflowing with stories: talented, intelligent, deeply capable women being laid off or restructured out of their roles across industries and organizations. At the same time, there were plenty of vague offers to "support" one another — but limited spaces where those words turned into actions.
It hit me: I've been building platforms and shaping stories since I stepped onto my first competition stage. I know how to help voices take form. I know how to make messages resonate. So why wasn't I using those same skills now, to create something that could support others in transition?
I'd been here before. Big, promising ideas withering on the vine because I didn’t have the mental bandwidth to explore, expand, and launch them. But this one felt different. It was chaotic, yes – but meaningful. I knew it could make a positive difference. And I was determined to ensure this one didn’t end up in the idea graveyard along with the rest.
Enter ChatGPT, a tool I'd used to help me reword emails and refine my resume. This time though, I wasn’t looking for polish – I was looking for thought partnership.
Was it awkward at first? 100%. I literally typed in "My brain is all over the place today."
But within a few hours, that chaotic-good vision started to come into crystal-clear focus.
Each time I finished a thought (a lap in the pool, if you will), there was that wall again. Ready to help me kick off, refocus, and keep moving. Instead of stalling out mid-lap, I kept my momentum going. Instead of spiraling or second-guessing, I found structure. What would have taken weeks of contemplation suddenly became real, because I had a surface to think against.
AI As a Surface – Not a Shortcut
If your first thought is "I don’t want to outsource my own creativity," I hear you. I had to work through that resistance too.
But here’s another viewpoint: working with AI to shape and clarify your unique ideas is a way to remove the friction that keeps your creativity stuck.
You want more visibility, but your content stalls in the overthinking stage.
Great ideas hit all the time, but only a few ever see the light of day.
You start a project full of energy, then get so focused on "getting it right" that the momentum sputters and dies.
If you're nodding (or cringing) along, these are exactly the kinds of patterns that AI tools can help you break.
It’s clarity at the speed of your own thinking — so you can act while the idea is still warm, before it cools into hesitation.
From Pressure Cooker to Playground
Limiting my use of AI to rewording emails was kind of like using a cell phone to hammer in a nail — it gets the job done, but is way too advanced of a tool for that task. That shift in perspective unlocked a new level of creativity – and clarity.
Instead of rearranging jumbled words, I now untangle complex thoughts: “Here’s what I’m thinking, but I feel like it’s missing X. What might I be overlooking?”
Rather than overthinking ideas into oblivion, I brainstorm more creative concepts: “I have this idea, but I’m stuck on X. What are some alternative approaches that might help me move forward?"
Over time, the real magic started to become clear: I was finding alignment faster – not by rushing, cheating, skipping steps, or outsourcing, but by letting go of all the extra noise.
My brain had become a playground instead of a pressure cooker...Pretty cool, right?
Finding Forward Motion
One of the most powerful results of that shift? Breaking out of the overthinking spiral.
Fellow Type-A introverts, I’m talking to you here.
Executives with a perspective you haven't shared yet, I’m talking to you here.
Creative wellsprings overflowing with powerful ideas, I’m talking to you here.
Going from “think it into perfection” to “think out loud, and shape as you go” has:
Helped me work faster, with results that are still aligned and authentic to who I am
Created more space for joy, experimentation, and momentum
Allowed me to bring ideas to life that once felt too complex to start
The Moment You Find Your Footing
You don’t need to start spending hours upon hours tinkering in AI tools to experience this shift (though immersion is certainly one way to approach it!). You don’t need to become a prompt engineer, or even consider yourself to be particularly tech-savvy.
What you do need is enough curiosity to open that door for yourself. And when you do, you might be pleasantly surprised to find that you were never too slow, or chaotic, or unmotivated, or scatterbrained. You were trying to build momentum with no wall to push off of.
You’re not flailing. You just need to find your footing on that wall and blast off.