During this difficult season we are in with so many people sharing their thoughts and ideas it is important that we take time to process the information coming at us. This is extremely important before we make any decisions about where we stand on the issues in front of us today. The thing we must develop within ourselves is critical thinking. Critical thinking is the objective analysis and evaluation of an issue in order to form judgment. Basically, it is thinking before you speak, or before you post, share or retweet. The opposite of this is non-critical thinking which is when you accept things as true without any evidence to support it. This is most often the result of allowing others to think for you and accepting their conclusions as your own.

We have all seen this scenario over the past several weeks. You can take a look at Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media platform where someone has posted, shared, or retweeted something without doing any research or taking the time to think for themselves. Then someone calls them on it and the response is usually, “Oh, I didn’t realize that was not true.” But the problem is the damage has already been done and you have become a part of the problem instead of the solution. Do you see how dangerous that can be?

I have been doing research trying to understand critical thinking and I have found there are certain elements that are present in critical thinking. Some of these elements are: observation, analysis, interpretation, reflection, evaluation, problem solving and decision making. You will notice that I placed decision making at the end of the list and that was intentional. I did that because the goal is not to make a decision until you have gone through the process of critical thinking, which involves the other elements listed. It allows you to make a better informed decision. The problem comes when we see something posted from someone else that fits the narrative we already have in our mind, critical thinking can easily go out of the window and we jump straight to decision making. I’ve fallen victim to it and I’ve had to check myself, or more often someone inside my trusted circle calls me on it and helps bring me back into the critical thinking process.

Why am I focused on critical thinking so much? It is because without critical thinking it will be difficult for you to show the empathy needed during this time. It will be difficult for you to walk in someone else’s shoes if you never allow yourself to process their reality. If we are lazy in our thinking and allow someone else to do the thinking for us, we will never allow our minds to see a different perspective. Without that, in my opinion, we will not be able to move forward in unity.

So how do we improve our critical thinking skills?

First, we have to stop being lazy thinkers. Stop letting the news, social media, friends and family be the decision maker for you. Yes, they all can play a part as you walk through the critical thinking process but they should not be the only factor.

Second, we have to be slower in our responses. Most things that you come across do not need an immediate share, like or retweet from you. We have to take the time to run it through the critical thinking process. We need to do some investigating before we form our opinion. 

Third, we must remember there are differing opinions out there. We need to take a look at those differing opinions to try and understand the other perspective. We do not have to agree with them but looking at them helps us to better understand where we stand and why. 

Fourth, we have biases and emotions and we can not rely on them to make our decisions. This one is extremely difficult to manage, especially in the season we are in, but it may be the most important. When we operate from a place of high emotion or bias, it is almost impossible to move through the process of critical thinking. Emotions and biases can cause us to react impulsively and without control. That is why I said earlier that much of what we may want to react to, does not need an immediate reply. Take the time to let your emotions calm down and for you to understand your biases, start critically thinking about the situation and then make your decision.

I admit, critical thinking is difficult, especially in the emotionally charged environment we are currently in. But if we truly want to bring about change and move forward into a better world for our children and grandchildren, we have to do it. I promise to work on this every day, and yes I may have times where my emotions and biases get the better of me. But I am praying that those times become fewer and fewer each day!

Evolution of Self!