Thinking Skills Part 2

Are you thinking, or reacting?

There are many things you do by habit or conditioned response. When the telephone rings, you answer it. When a box falls off the truck on the road in front of you, you swerve to miss it. If you had to stop and think about what to do, your reaction would come too late. You would collide with the box on the freeway. So habits and automatic responses are very important. It would be tough to get through the day without them. There is a danger, however, in becoming too dependent on them.

Unfortunately, much of what passes for thinking is actually reaction, assumption, or emotion.

I remember when we first had caller ID service installed on our home telephone line. It changed my telephone answering habits. Before, when the phone rang, I would simply answer it. Once we had caller ID service, though, instead of habitually answering the phone, I learned to look at the caller ID display to find out who was calling. It prompted me to think — to make a decision. Based on my knowledge of who is calling, should I answer it, or advise another family member to answer it, or just let the answering machine take a message?

The arrival of caller ID forced me to stop and consider, “What am I doing?” And because of that, my quality of life improved in a small way. I no longer had to listen to sales pitches from telemarketers, or answer other calls that I didn’t want to answer.

So just as there is value in developing good habits and conditioned responses for some situations, it is also important to develop good thinking and decision-making skills.

Imagine that you can step outside of yourself for a little while. Become an observer of your own actions. Look at each thing you do, and consider why you do it. Is it a conditioned habit, something that you do just because you did it last time and the time before? Is it an automatic response — does your blood pressure rise every time a certain person calls you? Do you say exactly the same thing every time someone asks what kind of work you do? Do you always run to the mall when a sale flyer comes from your favorite department store?

Or are your actions based on thought? Do you look at each situation, carefully weighing the benefits and potential outcomes of each approach? Stop and think before you react.
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