A colleague asked me how they can get better in their critical thinking skills.

Almost immediately I responded with these two strategies:

Learning

Discerning

Learning is being willing to understand what you don’t know, and not pretending to know everything.

Discerning is being able to STOP and THINK about why something exists, rather than take things at face value or dismissing it altogether.

A great example of learning is our current medical professionals. They are working so hard to understand the current Covid-19 virus which is testing everything they know about virology, biology and psychology. And when/if the current vaccines prove effective and successful, there will be more to learn an the after-effects for decades to come.

An example of discerning is the training a correctional officer in a prison receives. They are trained to prevent distractions and being set up in such a way that when an inmate confronts them with an “urgent: matter or request, they stop and think about the situation around them and ensure they ascertain the facts before proceeding forward with any action.

Critical thinkers do this well. Their continued learning allows them to be more discerning and vice versa. And the simple action of stopping and really thinking through all the possibilities that something could be true or not before deciding if it is creates a separation of truly critical thinkers.

Critical thinking is not dissing any idea you don’t come up with. It’s the true measure of being wise, growing, and truly respectful of the input around you.

Make an effort to learn and discern all the time.

(Image by Karolina Grabowska from Pixabay)