25 Days to Better Thinking
A Guide For Improving
Every Aspect Of Your Life
By
Dr. Linda Elder and Dr. Richard Paul; Pearson Education, Inc, 2006
taken from amazon.com
There is nothing we do as humans that
does not involve thinking. Our thinking tells us what to believe, what to
reject, what is important and unimportant, what is true and false, who are our
friends and enemies, what dreams to pursue, who we should marry, how we should
raise our kids. The quality of your life is determined by the quality of your
thinking.
The problem is our
thinking is often flawed. Many of our mistakes result from faulty reasoning. We
are often prejudiced, hypocritical, negative, self-deceptive, worrying,
blaming, selfserving, delusional and irrational. “25 Days to Better Thinking”
shows us how we can improve our thinking and make smarter, better
decisions.
Through this book, you can take control of your thinking and improve
your life.
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Day 1.
Learn To Empathize With Others
Intellectual empathy means appreciating viewpoints that are
different from ours. Don't assume that your viewpoint is the best one. Be
willing to engage in dialog to understand other perspectives. Do not fear ideas
and beliefs that you don't understand or have not considered. Those who think
differently may possess truths we have not yet discovered.
Through empathy, we understand others more fully, and gain
new insights in our minds as well.
Practice being empathetic by doing the following: When in
an argument, state in your own words what you think the other person is saying.
Ask the person if you have accurately stated his/her position. Notice the
extent to which others empathize with you. Ask him/her to state what she
understands you have been saying. Notice how sometimes people distort what you
have been saying because they don't want to change your views.
Day 2. Uncover Your Ignorance
Stop assuming that whatever you
believe is right. Actively focus on uncovering your ignorance.
Develop intellectual humility, or the ability to
recognize what you know and what you don't know. This will
open your mind to seek to learn more, develop your intellectual abilities and
expand your knowledge, and gain a healthy awareness of the limits of your
knowledge.
Actively question beliefs that seem obviously true to you--
especially religious, political, and cultural beliefs. Find alternative sources
of information that represent viewpoints you have never considered. Explore new
beliefs and be open to new insights.
To practice intellectual humility, make a list of
everything you absolutely know about someone you think you know well. Then make
a list of things you think are true about that person, but that you cannot be
absolutely sure about. Then make a list of things you do not know about that person.
If you trust this person, show him/her your list to see how accurate you are
and see what insights will emerge.
Day 3. Beware of Hypocrisy and Notice
Contradictions In Your Life
Hypocrisy is a state of mind unconcerned with honesty.
People are often hypocritical in three ways: they have higher standards for
those they disagree with than those they agree with; they fail to live
according to their beliefs; and they fail to see contradictions in the behavior
of people with high status.
To live a life of integrity, routinely examine your own
inconsistencies and face them truthfully, without excuses. By facing your own
hypocrisy, you begin to grow beyond it and start learning the truth about
yourself. You learn to recognize it in others so that they are less able to
manipulate you.
To practice integrity, observe the people around you and
analyze the extent to which they say one thing and do another. For example,
notice how often people claim to love someone they criticize behind the
person's back, thus showing bad faith. Examine your relationships and see if
you can identify hypocrisy or integrity in them.
Day 4. Be Fair, Not Selfish
Be on the lookout for selfishness in yourself and others. Human thinking is
naturally selfserving or selfish. This is because selfishness is a native, not
learned human tendency. But we tend to look out for “number one,” we tend to be
unfair to persons “two” and “three”.
Develop fair-mindedness and fair thinking. Consider the
rights and needs of others as equivalent to your own. Step outside your point
of view and into those of others.
To practice fair-mindedness, be on the alert to catch
yourself in the mental act of selfdeception for example, ignoring others'
viewpoints. Log each time you do something selfish. Consider how you can avoid
such behavior in future similar situations. Take every opportunity to think
broadly about issues that involve multiple viewpoints.
Day 5. Know Your Purpose
Thinking is always guided by human purposes. Your thinking
goes wrong when you aren't clear about your purpose, have unrealistic purposes,
have contradictory purposes, or don't stick to your expressed purpose.
It is important to examine the purposes that guide how we
live. Which are we aware of, and which lie beneath the surface? It is also
important to assess other people's purposes, and see if they contradict with
others, so that we are able to see through facades and avoid being manipulated
by others.
To know your purpose, figure out what you are after and how
you are seeking it. See if your goals are interwoven or in conflict with each
other, or are your real purposes different from your expressed ones. Figure out
what your family members, associates, and friends are after. Examine personal
goals, career goals, political goals, economic goals, national goals. Make a
list of your important goals and see if you find inconsistencies in them.
Day 6. Clarify Your Thinking
Be on the lookout for fuzzy, vague thinking--
thinking that sounds good but doesn't exactly say anything. Our thinking
usually seems clear to us, even when it is not. Vague, ambiguous, muddled,
deceptive, or misleading thinking are significant problems.
To practice clear thinking, learn to state one point
at a time. Elaborate on what you mean. Give examples that connect your thoughts
to life experiences. Use analogies or metaphors to help people connect your
ideas to a variety of things they already understand. To clarify what other
people are thinking, ask them to restate their point and give examples.
Summarize in your own words what others are saying. Ask
them if you understood them correctly. Be careful to neither agree nor disagree
with what anyone says until you clearly understand what he or she is saying.
Figure out the real meaning behind what people say. Look on and beneath the
surface. Figure out the real meaning of important news stories.
Day 7. Stick To The Point
Be on the lookout for fragmented thinking thinking that leaps about with no logical
connections. When thinking is relevant, it is focused on the main task at hand.
Learn to select what is germane, pertinent, related. Set aside what is immaterial,
inappropriate, extraneous and beside the point.
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Days to Better Thinking by Dr. Linda Elder and Dr. Richard Paul 3
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Undisciplined thinking is often guided by associations
rather than what is logically connected. Disciplined thinking intervenes when
thoughts wander and concentrates the mind on the things that help it figure out
what it needs to figure out.
If you find your thinking digressing, try to figure out
why. Is it simply wandering or do you need to deal with a different issue? If
the latter, then address the issue your mind has surfaced.
Know precisely, at any given moment, the issue you are
addressing. And then stick to the issue until your have resolved it or decided
to deal with it later. Do not allow your mind to wander aimlessly from idea to
idea, issue to issue, without direction or discipline.
Day 8. Question, Question, Question
Thinking is driven by questions. The quality of your
questions determines the quality of your thinking. Superficial questions lead
to superficial thinking. Deep questions lead to deep thinking. Creative
questions lead to creative thinking.
Questions also determine the intellectual tasks required
of you. Questions lay out different, but specific, tasks for the mind to work
through. Learn to ask powerful questions. Good thinkers ask questions to
understand and effectively deal with the world around them. Question the status
quo. Go beyond superficial or 'loaded' questions. When you also understand the
questions people are asking, you can better understand their thinking and
behavior.
To practice asking good questions, ask a question whenever
you don't understand something. When you have a complex problem, formulate the
question you are trying to answer in different ways until you hit on that which
best addresses the problem. When you plan to discuss an important issue, write
down in advance the most significant questions.
Day 9. Think Through Implications
Implications are the things that might happen if you decide
to do this or that. Consequences are what actually happen once you act. When
you consider implications, you explicitly choose the consequences that happen
to you. Everything we do has implications. Not just our actions, but what we
say and the words we decide to use.
To practice thinking through implications, always choose
your words carefully. Look at your life as a set of moment-to-moment options.
Each and every act, and every pattern of action, has outcomes. What outcomes do
you want? What must you do to anticipate likely outcomes? When faced with a
problem, list down implications and then act in the way that is likely to lead
to the outcome you want.
Think about the implications of the way you are living your
life now. Make a list of implications you probably will face for continuing to
live as you are. Ask youself: Will you be satisfied with those implications?
Day 10. Get Control Of Your Emotions
People often make the mistake of thinking feelings are
different from thoughts. Thoughts and feelings are two sides of the same coin.
If you think someone has been unjust to you, you will feel some negative
emotion toward that person. The feeling happens in the mind as a result of how
you think in the situation.
Learn to examine your emotions and investigate the thinking
that accounts for them. Take command of your emotions by taking command of the
thinking that causes those emotions.
To practice emotional control, notice the emotions you
regularly experience. Every time you experience a negative emotion, ask
yourself: what thinking is leading to this emotion? See if you can identify
some irrational thinking underlying the emotion. If so, attack the thinking
with more sensible thinking. Once you act on the new
thinking, your emotion should begin to shift accordingly.
Write down your emotions to focus more concretely on them,
especially negative emotions to identify problems in your thinking and
behavior.
Day 11. Take Control Of Your Desires
If you want to be in command of your life, you have to get
command of the desires that direct your behavior. Otherwise, you may pursue
irrational, destructive, and self-destructive desires, such as the desire to
dominate.
When you develop as a self-reflective thinker, you will be
able to differentiate between desires that make sense and those that
don't. You work to reject desires that
lead to suffering. You break down habits that feed self-destructive desires.
To practice controlling your desires, recognize that every
action you take is driven by some purpose or desire you have. Make a list of
every behavior you engage in that leads to humiliation, pain, or suffering, or
that is dysfunctional in some way. For every behavior, write the reasons why
you engage in this behavior. Question each. What motivates you? List something
you can do immediately to alter your dysfunctional behavior and then make a
more detailed plan on changing your behavior on the long-term.
Day
12. Be Reasonable.
But the mind is not naturally malleable; in fact, it is
rigid and often shuts out good reasons readily available to it. To become more
reasonable, you need to open your mind to the possibility, at any given moment,
that you might be wrong and another person may be right. You need to be willing
and able to change your mind when the situation or evidence requires it.
Recognize that you don't lose anything by admitting you were wrong.
To practice being reasonable, practice having the courage
to say, in an argument, “Of course, I may be wrong. You may be right.”
Recognize that you are being unreasonable when you are unwilling to listen to
someone else's reasons, you are irritated by reasons people give you before
thinking them through, and when you become defensive during a discussion.
Day 13. Show Mercy
Be on the lookout for opportunities to show mercy to
others, to display understanding, compassion, and forgiveness. These are rare
qualities. Most people feel this way toward their own families and friends. Few
demonstrate compassion and tolerance to those who think and act differently
from themselves. To others who are different, the attitude is often, “show no
mercy”.
To practice showing mercy, ask yourself how often
punishment is extreme in causing human suffering. Think of ways to deal with
cultural deviance (prostitution, recreational drug use, etc) without extreme
punishment and social vengeance.
Whenever you think someone should be punished, ask yourself
whether the greater good may not be better served in some other way, such as
rehabilitation instead of prison? Study the situations within which you find
yourself most lacking in mercy, forgiveness, and understanding. Consider the
influence of social conditioning on your ability to see things from multiple
perspectives.
Day 14. Don't Be A Conformist
Living entails membership in a variety of human groups -
peer group, family, religion, profession, culture, and nation. Every group has
an identity and rules that guide the behavior of members. While group
membership offers advantages, it also has its price conformity.
But conformity can be dangerous because through it,
arbitrary social rules are treated as if they were inherently good and right.
And arbitrary rules can lead to any number of unjust practices. Consider the
ways in which people who do not abide by social conventions are
marginalized atheists, people who
protest wars, etc.
When you become a skilled, independent thinker, you do not
mindlessly follow the crowd. You think for yourself. You figure out what makes
sense to believe and to reject. This is difficult because many conventions are
systematically indoctrinated into our thinking within our culture. Overcoming
conformity and indoctrination requires committed effort, insight, and courage.
To practice independent thinking, write down the answers to
these questions: What are some of the taboos in my culture? What behaviors are
considered shocking or disgusting? What beliefs are considered sacred? What
penalties exist for breaking the rules? Examine the extent to which you
uncritically accept the taboos and requirements of your culture. Make a list of
problems that result from mass conformity.
Day 15. Don't Be A Top Dog
Be on the lookout for dominating behavior yours and
others'. Dominating behavior involves an attempt to control others to your
advantage. Domination is often indirect and difficult to detect. While
dominating others may get you what you want, you need to recognize the
unethical nature of dominating behavior.
Rational persons do not dominate others, even when they
can, even when they can benefit from doing so. They would rather give up
something themselves than hurt others to get what they want.
Practice letting go of dominating behavior by identifying
the areas in your life in which you irrationally try to control others. At
home? At work? Consider the consequences. Does it fulfill you or frustrate you?
Notice how people justify dominating others. Observe the usual results of
domination in different situations. Develop your awareness of people and groups
who invest in controlling others.
Day 16. Don't Be An Underdog
Be on the lookout for submissive behavior yours and others'. One of hallmarks of
submissiveness is conformity. Underdogs often submit to the domination of
others in exchange for security, protection, or advancement.
To get command of any submissive behavior you may have,
begin observing your behavior closely when you are with others. Do you tend to
go along with others without thinking through whether it makes sense to do so?
Do you resent doing so afterwards? Do you feel someone else has control over
you?
Only by confronting your subservient
thinking and behavior can you get command of it and change it. When you catch
yourself being submissive or going along with others without good reason, speak
up and say what you think. Notice the sense of self you gain.
Day 17. Don't Be A Worrywart
Many people go through life worrying about problems rather
than actively working to solve them. Sometimes they obsess about problems they
can do nothing about. But worry never adds to the quality of your life, it can
only diminish it.
Be on the lookout for when you worry about problems rather
than acting to solve them. Notice when you worry while presenting a calm
exterior. Notice the negative emotions you experience when you worry. When you
have a problem, you need to do your best thinking to see if you can find a
solution. Open your mind to possibilities. If you cannot solve the problem, you
need to let it go. When you catch yourself worrying, apply this Mother Goose
rhyme:
For every problem under the sun
There is a solution or there is none
If there be one, seek till you find it
If there be none, then never mind it.
Day 18. Stop Blaming Your Parents
Very few people survive childhood without emotional scars.
All parents make mistakes, some more than others. But as adults, we need to
take responsibility for who we are and who we are becoming. This involves
recognizing emotional baggage and getting past it. Living in misery, blaming
our parents, and focusing on ourselves as victims lead to a life of depression
and resentment.
Thinking negative thoughts about your parents does not help
them or you. Stop feeling sorry for yourself.
We all have a choice. By taking charge of our thinking, we can become
who we want to be. The past is gone. The present and the future remain.
If you find yourself blaming your parents, write down
exactly what you think they've done and what damage they have caused. Make sure
you distinguish between fact and belief. Read this carefully and ask yourself
what you hope to gain by dwelling on any of these memories. Take every moment you
typically use to blame your parents and transform that energy into positive
actions for your present and future.
Day 19. Don't Be Brainwashed By The News Media
Every society and culture has a unique worldview that
shapes what people see and how they see it. News media across the world reflect
the worldview of their own culture and society. News media need to present news
in ways that are palatable and interesting to their audience.
Mainstream news coverage in any culture operates on these
maxims:
This is how it appears to us from our point of view;
therefore, this is the way it is.
These are the facts that support our way of looking at
this; therefore these are the most important facts.
These countries are friendly to us; therefore, these
countries deserve praise. These countries are unfriendly to us; therefore,
these countries deserve criticism.
These are the stories that are most interesting and
sensational to our audience; therefore, these are the most important stories in
the news.
But the truth of what is happening in world is more
complicated than what appears true to people in any culture. Learn to recognize
bias in your nation's views, and detect ideology, slant, and spin. When you
recognize propaganda and bias, you can determine what media messages need to be
supplemented, counterbalanced, or thrown out entirely.
Become a critical consumer of media and develop skills of
media analysis. Study alternative perspectives and worldviews, learning how to
interpret events from the perspective of multiple views. Seek understanding and
insight through multiple sources of thought and information. Learn to identify
viewpoints embedded in news stories. Notice contradictions and inconsistencies.
Notice what facts are covered and which are ignored.
Day 20. Don't Be Bamboozled By Politicians
Politicians would have us believe that they are deeply
concerned about the welfare of people, that their actions are determined by
what best serves the people. In other words, politicians present themselves as
statesmen. Don't buy it.
If you read between the lines, you will notice that money,
not concern for the public interest, is usually where the action is, with big
money protecting big money. For example, when the Bush administration demanded
changes to a World Health Organization plan to fight obesity, after the plan
was applauded by public health advocates worldwide, what does it tell us? The
same plan was opposed by big food manufacturers and the sugar industry.
To see through politicians, listen closely to what
politicians say. Always ask, “What is the interest of big money here?” “What is
the public interest?” Identify politicians' vested interests and keep them in
mind. Become a student of political history by reading broadly in alternative
sources to identify repeating patterns in political behavior throughout the
years.
Day 21. Strive To Be A Citizen Of The World
It is becoming increasingly clear that the survival and
well-being of humans depends largely on our ability to work together
successfully and productively, to reach out to one another, to help one
another. But people are raised to see their country, or their group, as better
than others. This is natural tendency of the human mind.
But if we are to create a world that advances justice for the
vast majority of people across the globe, we must become citizens of the world.
We must think within a global, rather than just a national, view. We must take
a long-term view. We must see the lives of people in other countries as no less
precious than the lives of those in our own country.
We must oppose the pursuit of narrow selfish or group
interests. Integrity and justice must become important to us than national
advantage and power. Question the motives and actions of all governments.
Recognize the similarity of politicians in all countries, and the similarity of
news media serving vested interests across all countries.
Support the development of altruistic international groups
unconnected with vested interests. Imagine yourself as a citizen of the world.
Put world needs ahead of national agendas. Notice the evolution of your views
as you learn to think within a global perspective. Take a global problem global warming, malnutrition, disease,
overpopulation and find out as much as
you can from multiple international sources. Then compare what your country is
doing about the problem.
Day 22. Don't Get Your Views
Question the news, values and information that you get from
mainstream media and advertising.
Most shows and ads on TV are aimed at the intellectual
level of an eleven-year -old. TV shows and ads are designed to amuse and
engage, not to challenge the mind or educate. Such shows, with their
preponderance of violence, sex, and sensationalism, can also negatively affect
our thinking and behavior.
Learn to be critical of the information you get. Get more
information from multiple and alternative sources. Think what vested interests
may be behind a certain article or news story.
Watch alternative channels like C-SPAN or Free Speech TV.
Day 23. Do Something, Anything, To Make The
World Better
Select a local or international organization, big or small,
that is working to make the world better and join it. It doesn't matter if all
you do is contribute money. At your workplace or at home, find ways in which
you can get others to contribute or help/reach out to those who need it. Work
to create environments where people help people, even in just your own circle.
Discover your strengths, and use them to contribute. If you
are good at writing, you may write letters to the editor or small pieces to
highlight topics of interest or urgency.
Day 24. Educate Yourself
Commit yourself to lifelong learning. This is the only way
you can truly become a good thinker.
Place the cultivation of your mind at the heart of your personal values.
Begin to develop a plan for
lifelong self-development. Study your own behavior.
See through the shallowness of celebrity and status,
pomp and ceremony. Recognize that deep learning of new ideas is the key to an
educated mind.
Identify opportunities to be with people who want to
improve their minds. Read widely. Create a library. Become your own historian,
sociologist and economist. Understanding what is really happening in the world
requires broad reading from multiple sources and perspectives, as well as
reading the works of the world's best thinkers.
taken from amazon.com
taken from amazon.com
Day 25. Figure Out Where To Go From Here
The first twenty-four steps show you how to begin to
start thinking better. The last step shows you what you need to do further.
On the 25th day of your 25-day plan, create a 25week
plan, focusing on one of the 24 ideas presented here per week.
Make a list of books you want to read. Consider
keeping a daily journal. Figure out how you can continue to enhance your
critical thinking skills. Visit the Foundation for Critical Thinking at
www.criticalthinking.org.
Commit yourself to applying
a new idea per day or per week. Set aside a certain time each day for
self-development.
