Critical Thinking Reflection

Critical thinking is a very important part of my everyday life. Critical thinking keeps me observant and objective to what I see and hear. In this course I have learned to remove my emotions substantially from critical thinking, to remember to validate the message or messenger, and have multiple solutions to a problem. These lessons are important to me, and I will tell you why and how I’ll apply them in my everyday life. Through this course, I have identified one of my barriers to objective critical thinking as emotion. Emotion is important, but I have been working on limiting its influence when it comes to critical thinking. For many years, I have allowed my emotions to overwhelm me in my decision making. Clouding many rational choices, that could have led to various outcomes. Overcoming that influence has made me more open to various options in problem-solving and more neutral will listening to information. I plan to continue my work in this area, as the benefits are already seen. The second lesson I learned was to validate the message and messenger. This is something I have done my whole adult life. Again I learned that many messages even though we think they are reliable need evaluation for accuracy. The source of the message even from news sources must be researched for accuracy to be able to form an informed opinion on the subject. A lesson that will carry on for the rest of my life, because once your eyes are open to truths you don’t want to close them again. The final lesson learned in this course is, to have multiple solutions to a problem and to analyze the options to find the best solution. I need to take the time to come up with multiple solutions to a problem and look at how well each solution works to correct that problem. Previously I was rushing with the first solution. Now each solution seems to be a much more permanent fix to the problem. For the future, I will continue to monitor the solved problems while weighing all possible