5 Ways Critical Thinking Skills Can Increase Your Happiness
Critical Thinking and Happiness
Critical thinking skills are essential for our development as independent thinkers capable of contemplating multiple perspectives and forming our own judgments. But have you considered that honing these crucial skills can increase your happiness? In the sections that follow, we will look at how critical thinking skills can help us find peace and even happiness in situations that tend to sadden or stress us. We will explore:
Knowing when to quit or not,
Getting unstuck and unlocking your potential,
Feeling that time does NOT fly,
Not letting your interpretations of their intentions agitate you,
Understanding others’ perspectives without endorsing them.
These are just a few examples of how applying critical thought to some of life’s daily stressors can lead to greater happiness. Grab your critical thinking toolbox 🧰 and let’s get to it!
Know when to quit or not
I bet a lot of us have lost sleep trying to decide whether to keep pushing through on something challenging, to pivot, or to just let it go and move on. Maybe it’s a job we’re contemplating leaving, a relationship that might have run its course, or a dream we keep trying to realize but it’s just not happening.
The Critical Thinking 🧰 Skills: Question, Identify, Interpret, Decide
The Application: Life is too short to force something that just doesn’t fit. It’s helpful to distinguish the difference between quitting because something gets too hard (exhausting) and quitting because persisting gets too painful (hurts your soul). It’s the classic distinction between being pulled by something or pushed into it.
Ask yourself: “Am I tired but I still feel the pull? Or is the push towards it finally more than I can bear?”
Identify which of these forces (push or pull) characterizes what is keeping you in this challenging situation and write down how you know (interpret) this.
What are your clues that you are driven by a push or a pull?
Once the answer starts to feel clear, plan (decide on) a course of action.
Whether you stay the course or change directions, you now have the peace of mind that your choice is coming from a place of understanding yourself, and not just an unexamined gut feeling or outside pressures.
You can use this test for “knowing when to hold them and knowing when to fold them.” (Adapted from the lyrics of the Kenny Rogers song, “The Gambler”). ☺️
2. Get unstuck and unlock your potential
“I’ll be ready when ___ happens.” Sound familiar?
Waiting on something to change before moving forward with a dream or a goal can zap our zest. There is magic in the moment right before “everything changed” or “everything came together,” but not if we get stuck in that moment, just waiting. Hence the question:
“So . . . what are you waiting for?”
Investigating our response critically 🧰 is where many of us can find something that might put us on a path to greater happiness if we are brave enough to take a step.
The Critical Thinking 🧰 Skills: Investigate, Identify, Analyze, Take Action
The Application: Analyze whether you have legitimate reasons for holding off on something or just choosing to preserve an undisturbed dream. Both are fine, but understanding your reason behind your choice can give you a sense of peace.
Here’s how:
List (investigate) your reasons for waiting.
Then identify, jot down, and explore the fears behind each reason. Are they based on past experiences? Warnings of others? Your own research?
With each reason and its underlying fears now examined, compare what happens if you do nothing to what happens if you act and it all falls apart. Which outcome feels less tolerable?
We cannot predict the future with any certainty but thinking through our choices to ensure they are truly ours (a result of thinking critically 😉) can help us feel better prepared when making decisions with uncertain outcomes.
3. Feel that time is NOT flying by
We hear it every year: “I can’t believe it’s already almost September!” (It’s early-August 🤨). “Summer just FLEW by!!!”
Time neither flies nor crawls, speeds up nor slows down, but our perception of it can make it feel that way. And when we exclaim that time is dragging or flying, we’re usually not happy about it. So how can we add more happiness to our perception of time?
The Critical Thinking 🧰 Skills: Investigate, Evaluate, Reframe
The Application: How we experience time has a lot to do with context, our expectations, and other factors. While time never actually speeds up nor slows down, our perception of time can change and does affect our experience of time.
So, look at when you experience time going “too fast or slow” (the context) and adjust your expectations (the reframe).
If you feel your child is growing up “too fast,” change the language you use around this. Instead of saying time “flew,” recount some of your memories. Stretch out present moments by limiting distractions. Life is a collection of moments, and we have millions of moments!! When you shift your focus to how full a summer, a year or even a childhood was, it is less likely to feel like it slipped past too fast.
Most things are relative, including time. My dogs will only be with me for their lifespans of a few years, compared to my lifespan. But to them, I’m with them their ENTIRE life. And we don’t tend to think of entire lifespans as flying by. That would be sad. So honor the chapters of our lives by allowing them to take the time they take, without rushing them.
Vacations and other fun events tend to feel like they go faster than ordinary days or unpleasant ones. Try to plan something fun to look forward to after your next vacation. It might help you stretch/stay in the present moments on your trip as your mind won’t be as prone to lamenting the vacation ending.
These are just a few suggestions. When we stop and consider how our language and focus contribute to our perception of time, we CAN contribute to experiencing its passage in a happier way.
4. Don’t let your interpretations of their intentions agitate you
How often have you heard someone called naive because they just don’t see how they are being wronged? Maybe you think someone said something offensive to them and you get upset on their behalf. Or perhaps you are quick to jump to the worst possible conclusion about what someone meant, when the person directly affected seems fine.
Are they naive? Or just happy?
At the very least, they seem much less bothered than you are.
We cannot control what other people say or do, but we CAN choose our interpretations. So if you find yourself obsessing about what you assume someone intended, try this instead.
The Critical Thinking 🧰 Skills: Understand Bias (particularly your own), Examine, Shift Focus, Interpret
The Application: Understanding biases isn’t just a deep dive into how you might perceive others. It’s also an understanding of how you think others perceive YOU. Examine what conclusions you tend to jump to when it comes to how you think others are perceiving you.
Do you tend to think others are being rude, offensive, or taking advantage?
Do you see a pattern in your interpretation(s)?
Do you tend to jump to interpretations that make you feel good, bad, or neutral?
Are you comfortable choosing an interpretation that doesn’t leave you bothered? Or does that leave you feeling like you missed something?
Now consider a definition of happiness as a product of focusing less on what you THINK others intended and more on how you CHOOSE to interpret situations.
And practice choosing the interpretations that leave you feeling pretty okay.
It gets easier the more you do it, as you train your brain not to jump to the worst interpretations of others’ intentions.
5. Understand others’ perspectives without endorsing them
“We don’t have to agree with people to understand them.” And we can be nicer to people we don’t agree with when we can at least understand them.
My son said this the other day, and while I’m probably biased . . . He’s right.
More kindness in your life is not just about how you feel and what you do. It’s also about how you train your mind to think. And more kindness in our lives does tend to increase our happiness, wouldn’t you say?
So let’s look at how we can use critical thinking skills to understand others’ perspectives and inspire kindness.
The Critical Thinking 🧰 Skills: Curiosity, Interpretation, Open-mindedness
The Application: Our opinions are formed from our perspectives, which in turn are shaped by our experiences. To avoid an exchange of opposing opinions becoming a clash of ideas, try using storytelling to share your EXPERIENCES. For example:
Tell others what you went through before telling them “what you think.”
Ask others about the experiences that have led them to see things a certain way, avoiding the temptation to discredit their beliefs with your “facts.”
And most importantly, show others you can accept if they don’t agree, rather than insist they’re not trying to understand. When we accept that someone can fully understand us and still not agree, we might feel a big weight lifted off our shoulders.
✨There’s peace and happiness in that.
In Closing
These are just a few of the ways critical thinking skills can help with problem-solving, decision-making, and reframing of issues to bring you more peace of mind and tranquility. You can find more on how critical thinking skills can improve your communications, relationships, and overall well-being at https://diverseinthecity.com/ .
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Margarita Diaz is an attorney, educator, trained diversity professional, researcher, and writer. She’s passionate about using critical thinking to help us all understand and communicate better across our differences. You can find her insights on her website https://diverseinthecity.com/blog/ where she offers thinking prompts, exercises to help build your critical thinking skills, and practical tips to improve communications that might otherwise feel challenging or intimidating. Follow her blog for fresh perspectives in your inbox 📨 1x or 2x a month.
You can also find her on Instagram as @diverseinthecity at https://www.instagram.com/diverseinthecity/ and on LinkedIn at http://linkedin.com/in/margarita-diaz-8692804b .
