The Value of Critical Thinking
Give your opinion on whether being an effective critical thinker makes decision making easier or more challenging. Justify your response.
Consider the following statement: “The major difference between a successful person and one that is not successful is that the successful person, over time, tends to make better decisions than the less successful person.” Discuss whether or not you believe this statement to be true. Explain the fundamental ways in which effectively applying critical thinking concepts has helped you to become more successful.
RESPOND TO THE FOLLOWING STATEMENT:
I think that being an effective critical thinker makes decision making more challenging but I also believe that it makes the decision made more likely to be the right one. I feel this way because instead of just giving a decision off the cuff, critical thinking will require you to analyze information, data, etc in order to come to a conclusion so the decision making process takes longer because you need to make sure that you have all necessary information and that it is from reliable sources. However, if you take all of those steps, I do believe the decision made will be the correct one more than it won’t be because you thought it through.
As far as the 2nd statement, I do believe this is true. Anyone who is successful, has had to face challenges and tough decisions. If you just make a decision to get it over with, there is no basis on whether it will be a good or bad decision and therefore luck would play a factor. However, if the successful person uses critical thinking to determine what paths to take in their career, they are more likely to make good decisions that lead to success. For me, one of the biggest times I used critical thinking that helped make me more successful was when I decided to start my own business. I was working for a very large company and was one of their top sales reps in the country but I wasn’t happy with the company itself. I used critical thinking methods, including the Ben Franklin method, to weigh all of the positives, negatives, challenges etc that could exist. That was over 5 years ago and I feel that I made a great decision. Another time I used critical thinking was when I decided to get a divorce. Since there were kids involved, it was not an easy snap decision. I had to weigh everything i knew, everything that was unknown, tap into others who have gone through the same thing and use all of that information to make the final decision to end the marriage. In the end, I am happy that I did because it led to more success in my personal life. I have a great relationship with my kids. I met the love of my life and we are married for a little over 2 years now. And, I have 4 step kids so how our house is crazy, but we love it and critical thinking led to this happiness and success.