First of all, we need to ask ourselves, why do we need to think critically? What is Critical thinking in the first place? Critical Thinking is the ability of a person to choose the most logical choices that is involve in the decision making process. So the answer to the question as to why do we need to think critically lies in choosing the perfect option in every decision in the aspects of our everyday lives.
We wake up each and every day getting bombarded with a series of decisions whether small and unimportant things to major and crucial decisions that will affect our lives in the long run. We are forced to decide between choices that are given to us by a certain situations that making mistakes in decision making becomes very common in our life.
But what can we do to lessen these mistakes? There are many ways to improve your decision making skills. By doing so, you will acquire the skills to think critically and solve many problems that will come your way. Here are the five easy steps that you can do to improve your critical thinking.
5 Steps in improving Critical Thinking:
- Ask Questions – First, you need to decide which of the answers are the best option for you. You need to formulate a specific question so that you can find the most accurate answer to help you.
- Gather information – Second, you need to gather as many data as you can to help you determine the best and most plausible answer to your question.
- Apply the information – After deciding on the most plausible option, applying the information you acquired is the next step. Applying the information helps you justify and prove the effect and possibilities of your choice.
- Consider the implications – You have to keep in mind that every decision will affect something in your life one way or another. So by considering the downside and cons of your decisions, it helps you anticipate the negative effects and gives you time to prepare the solution to the possible outcome of your choice.
- Ask for other’s opinion – Last but not the least, you have to explore different options by asking other people for feedbacks or asking them how they solved similar problems. This helps broaden your options and lessen the possibilities of making a huge implications in your daily life.
While many people claims that experience is the best teacher and mistakes are a proof of being human, decreasing the mistakes in our daily life also has its perks. It is not necessary to commit mistakes in order to learn because sometimes, we learn by doing the right thing.
Source: Ted-Ed
