Tell Your Story

            When it comes to critical thinking standards, the ones that are most significant to me are clear reasoning, importance/relevance, and being accurate.  Often times in life, we go about making decisions without truly knowing why we make those decisions.  For instance, when I was eighteen and a recent high school graduate, I decided the join the U.S. Army.  I’m not sure how I arrived to that decision but I know that I didn’t weigh the alternatives (reason) i.e. another career field, college, etc.  Furthermore, I didn’t know to what my goal was (importance/relevance) in life.  I suppose my immediate goal was earning a steady paycheck.  Lastly, I was not accurate in my beliefs.  Did I have wishful thinking that this decision would provide the best outcome?  Fortunately, for me, it turned out to be a good decision.  I found overall success in the Army.  However, that does not mean I did not experience failure.  Therefore, I have come to realize that success is the difference between all the “right” and “wrong” decisions I have made in my life.  This belief applies to anything – faith, family, personal relationships, school, work, and so on.  This is where critical thinking becomes important, in that it helps me in decision-making.  Of course, my standards of critical thinking slowly developed over time, through my life experiences and maturation.

            When it comes to decision making, I first ask myself, “How do I go about making the right decision?”  I consider that there are six general steps in decision-making.  They are 1) clearly define the problem, 2) list all possible alternatives, 3) identify the possible outcomes or states of nature, 4) list the payoff for each combination of alternatives and outcomes, 5) select a decision theory model, and 6) apply the model and make your decision (Render, Stair, Hanna, & Hale, 2015).  The first step is the most critical.  I ask myself, “What is the problem?”  However, the problem may not be a problem at all but a goal I seek.  After retiring from the Army, a goal I sought after was earning a college degree.  I clearly reasoned that this was a necessary step in achieving long-term career success.  Second, I believed that it was important/relevant because it allows me to provide a better quality of life for my family.  Lastly, I need to be accurate in my steps towards completing my degrees (I am now pursuing an MBA after earning my Bachelor’s degree).  Accurate means using the existing body of knowledge i.e. works/references or my professors’ knowledge to challenge my own beliefs and learn “truths”.   

            However, as with any decision, I must consider the inputs I provide.  Am I clearly defining my problem or goal (an input of honest self-reflection)?  Am I putting in the effort necessary to solve my problem or achieve my goal?  This reminds me of an adage, “Garbage in, garbage out”.  Once again, my successes will be determined by the sum of rights outweighing the sum of wrongs.  I must use critical thinking to tip the scales in my favor.

References

Nosich, G. M. (2012). Learning to think things through. Boston, MA: Pearson Education.

Render, B., Stair, R., Hanna, M., & Hale, T. (2015). Quantitative analysis for management . Boston, MA: Pearson Education.

Intellectual Perserverance

            I believe the personal quality of perseverance is a cornerstone of my character.  It has pushed me forward when I felt like giving up.  There have been times in my life when I have thought of quitting because I felt that a “victory”, whether real or perceived, was no longer worth the adversity of achieving it.  All of these victories required that I fight a “battle”.  The battles have been physical – enduring pain, fatigue, and so forth.  The battles have also been emotional – fighting personal fears or being told, “You’re not good enough”.  Yet, I have won many battles (unfortunately not all) because I have persevered.  This is because I have held a belief and said to myself, “the ordinary person cannot or will not endure this, but you are not ordinary”.  I will not argue whether this is fact or not but it has definitely helped me. 

            I believe that having intellectual perseverance is just as important, but even more so in my personal growth as a student and an intellectual.  One given definition of an intellectual is a person who is “rational” and “…who relies on intellect rather than on emotions or feelings (Dictionary.com, n.d.).”  However, Nosich (2012) asserts that critical think is not emotionless – there must be a reasonable balance between data and emotions.  Having intellectual perseverance will help me fight my battles against being ignorant, complacent, and undisciplined.  First, I must fight my own ignorance, which is, acting on assumptions or beliefs rather than on facts.  An example of this is committing a fallacy.  I have to use critical thinking to know that the “truths” are out there and to know them through research, study, and analysis.  Second, I must fight complacency.  As a student, there is a temptation to feel that the academic effort I have put in is “good enough”.  How many times have you heard someone utter the words, “C’s get degrees!”  I have at times before studied in a manner (memorizing) to simply pass a test.  I have to have the intellectual perseverance to understand that my academic studies are more than a means to an end, but that the knowledge I gain will allow me to solve problems in all aspects of my life.  Lastly, I must remain disciplined in my efforts to achieve my educational goals.  The sacrifices in pursuing a degree are self-imposed and I may question why I even do it at all.  I have friends and colleagues that put off higher education because they “don’t have the time”.  We all have limited time.  It’s a matter of what activities we choose to take up that time.  Dr. AnnMaria Demars, a former world Judo champion and now a successful entrepreneur was once asked if there was a connection amongst her successes and she replied, “There is. It's perseverance. It's being able to give up what you want now for what you want most, not just one time, but many many times (Demars, 2015).”

            Intellectual Perseverance also relates to my concept of a good leader.  A favorite quote that comes to mind is that of the respected military leader and Medal of Honor recipient, Admiral (ADM) James Stockdale.  ADM Stockdale once said, “The test of character is not ‘hanging in there’ when you expect a light at the end of the tunnel, but performance of duty and persistence of example when you know that no light is coming (Department of the Army, 1985).”  I can imagine that ADM Stockdale fortified his belief of perseverance from his own experience as a prisoner of war (POW) during the Vietnam conflict.  However, as leaders must have the physical perseverance to take physical action, they must also the intellectual perseverance to make the tough decisions and to do the “right” things i.e. morally and ethically. 

References

Demars, D. A. (2015, August 26). Retrieved from drannmaria.blogspot.com: http://drannmaria.blogspot.com/2015_08_01_archive.html

Department of the Army. (1985). Leadership statement and qoutes. Washington, D.C.: Department of the Army.

Dictionary.com. (n.d.). Retrieved from www.dictionary.com: http://www.dictionary.com/browse/intellectual

Nosich, G. M. (2012). Learning to think things through. Boston, MA: Pearson Education.