I don’t know about you, but I get bored to death of the same old things.  Getting up in the morning, going to work for 8 hours, coming home, and going to sleep shortly after.  All the while you are constantly worried about various little things that you must keep in order in your life.  Then you wake up the next morning and do it all over again.  This is of course required for most people in order for them to have a decent standard of living in America.  I am no different in this regard, but I have found something!

Up until recently, I used to go out every weekend and party with my friends.  We would drink, play games, go out to bars or whatever.  Over time I noticed it started to change me.  It was probably changing me all along but I finally noticed what was happening.  It was slowly killing my dreams.  It was holding me back.

Don’t get me wrong, I had a lot of fun, but my thoughts have begin to changed now.  I now spend more time learning about life, and living.  There are so many things in this world that I have forgotten all about.  I have had a revelation.  I remember when I was younger and I used to have so much fun doing the simplest things.  I was living.  I was learning.  I had dreams. I had ideas.  I had inhibitions to go and do them.

Somewhere along the line I lost focus.  Things became distorted and other elements shifted my life in a different direction.  The direction, while enjoyable was not the direction I wanted to go.  I was pushed in that direction by others.  I think about this all the time and the more I think about it the more I am starting to do something about it.  I realized that I have been spending the last 20+ years living my life by someone else’s standards.  I will no longer allow this.  I am breaking free.  It is time for me to start learning thinking and living.  Call it what you want, a quarter life crisis maybe.

When I say learning thinking, I mean learning how to think.  Yes, you can learn how to think differently.  All you need to do is teach yourself.  Start questioning everything.  Step out of your normal circle of events. Realize that most little things are not even worth the energy to worry about.  Instead of worrying, start living.  These are the thoughts I have now, and so far I feel much better.

If you feel the same way I did I recommend you start thinking about your life and what YOU want to do with it.  I know it is scary to think that way and may seem impossible, but it’s not.  You just have to find the way to do it.  Try to realize that you used to be different, but you let some thing or someone else tell you how to live your life.  I know it is scary but you got to find the courage.  Remember, courage is when you are the only one that knows you are scared.

Critical thinking is an extremely important skill to have.  Unfortunately, there is a lack of use of this skill in today’s American society.  I am not just talking about critical thinking in college school projects or using the skill to solve a computer problem.  I am talking about in everyday life.  Because we live in a society of capitalism and heavy religious involvement, it is important to keep your thinking wits about you at all times.  There are too many organizations and institutions trying to sell you on ideas therefore you must be aware at all times and use your mind, to make the right decisions.  Making a decision in your life should always come after a critical thinking session.

Critical Thinking is the mental process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating information to reach an answer or conclusion.

What???

You might be thinking, “Ok….what does THAT mean?”  This is the dictionary.com definition so it is a little dry.  Let’s try to break this down by looking at the definition of each term.

The first term is “mental process”.  It simply means “thinking“.

Next we have “actively and skillfully conceptualizing”.  Conceptualizing basically means coming up with a concept.

Actively means constantly and skillfully means using what you have learned from past experiences.

“Applying” means to put into action.  “Analyzing” simply means to look at.

Synthesizing means combine and evaluating means to judge or determine the significance.

By combining and applying all of these things when making a decision you are practicing critical thinking.  So now we that you understand what each term means, you may be able to mentally grasp the concept.  Read the definition slowly to yourself and try to understand the concept of it.

Using this type of logical thinking in everyday life will help you in many ways.  The most significant way it can help you will be from making much more informed decisions in your life.  By applying critical thinking whenever you are presented with information or ideas you begin to learn how to ask the right questions.  You will be less likely to be manipulated or get taken advantage of, like believing in something that does not actually exist..

Very often we see suggestions on what products or services to buy, what to think, who to believe, who to trust or what we should be doing with ours lives.  By constantly asking the right questions, you will be able to see right through the information presented, and see it for what it really is.  Very often you will find that the information is propaganda and you will find the hidden agendas that exist.

After a long time of critical thinking you will see the world much differently.  You will start to notice things that you usually over looked before.  Don’t be afraid to use your thinking skills whenever presented information from entities such as governments, political figures, News media, and commercials.  These entities have a lot of influence on your life, so it is important that you be skeptical and think critically whenever possible.  Remember that critical thinking is a skill and does not come naturally.  It is imperative that we all develop this skill and use it in our everyday lives.

“Critical thinking is self-guided, self-disciplined thinking which attempts to reason at the highest level of quality in a fair-minded way.  People who think critically consistently attempt to live rationally, reasonably, empathically.   They are keenly aware of the inherently flawed nature of human thinking when left unchecked.  They strive to diminish the power of their egocentric and sociocentric tendencies.” – Dr. Lina Elder