We all have our blind spot! Each of us sometimes runs in the wrong direction – each of us has certain thinking errors, no matter how intelligent we are.
Stimulation for critical thinking
You do not know for sure what makes you happy or successful! But you know for sure what destroys happiness and success – your wrong decisions!
We don’t always need more sales! Better and smart decisions can save millions, if we improve our decisions, we will be better off.
How can you systematize your decision-making or decision-making process (i.e., create a decision tree)?
The wisdom of great thinkers such as Baltasar Gracian, Ibn Zafer, Niccolo Machiavelli, Sun Tzu, etc. can be of great help in making decisions.
Enclosed are some recommended actions to be able to create your own decision tree in the decision making or decision process.
Decision-making: Create your own decision tree – recommendations for action
Critical Thinking
- Your passions (anger, resentment, your own inclinations) strongly influence your decisions and your critical thinking. Strong passions cloud your judgment and prevent you from seeing the truth. Therefore, never make decisions in a passionate state.
Ibn Zafer S. 182: “It is said: He who is too fond of his own council shall err and he who exalts himself above others shall be humbled. Strong passions obscure one`s judgment and prevent from reflecting the truth. Passion, before it reaches obstinacy, is like a high; but when it becomes obstinate, it is like reeling drunkenness. He who is passion’s slave cannot keep to the anger cast a veil over his understanding. Because passion, as the firmer tyrant, has a far stronger hold upon the soul than understanding, whose influence is acquired and more recent. Two reasons may impede understanding: covetousness and anger. If one is not obscured by both, it never fails to watch over passion, and even to control it. But if one is blinded by them, passion reaches absolute mastery, and requires special attention.”Decide with reason, but also with feeling.
- Decide with reason and critical thinking, but also with feeling.
Gracian 002: Character and Intellect: the two poles of our capacity; one without the other is but halfway to happiness. Intellect sufficeth not, character is also needed. On the other hand, it is the fool’s misfortune, to fail in obtaining the position, the employment, the neighbourhood, and the circle of friends that suit him.
- Overthink important decisions – practice critical thinking. Do not put yourself under pressure when making important decisions.
Gracian 132: “Think twice Appealing to a revision gives security; especially if one is not completely clear about something, one gains time either to agree or to improve. New reasons present themselves to reaffirm and confirm the decisions. If it is a matter of giving, the certainty that the gift has been given with deliberation will make it more valuable than the joy of speed, for that which has been long desired is always valued most highly. If, on the other hand, one must refuse, then one gains time for the way to bring the no to maturity, so that it tastes less bitter. In addition to this, when the first heat of desire is over, the resentment of a refusal is felt less afterwards, when the blood is cold. But to him who asks suddenly and hurriedly, one should grant late, for that is a trick to surprise the attention.”
- Before making a decision, listen to many opinions and reports without bias. If decisions are to be made within a larger company, listen to opinions from all levels of the hierarchy.
Gracian 227: Do not be the Slave of First Impressions. Some marry the very first account they hear: all others must live with them as concubines. But as a lie has swift legs, the truth with them can find no lodging. We should neither satisfy our will with the first object nor our mind with the first proposition: for that were superficial. Many are like new casks who keep the scent of the first liquor they hold, be it good or bad. If this superficiality becomes known, it becomes fatal, for it then gives opportunity for cunning mischief; the ill-minded hasten to colour the mind of the credulous. Always therefore leave room for a second hearing. Alexander always kept one ear for the other side. Wait for the second or even third edition of news. To be the slave of your impressions argues want of capacity, and is not far from being the slave of your passions.
- Flattery from others benefits you less than it costs you – practice yourself in critical thinking!
Gracian 245: Original and out-of-the-way Views are signs of superior ability. We do not think much of a man who never contradicts us that is no sign he loves us, but rather that he loves himself. Do not be deceived by flattery, and thereby have to pay for it: rather condemn it. Besides you may take credit for being censured by some, especially if they are those of whom the good speak ill. On the contrary, it should disturb us if our affairs please everyone, for that is a sign that they are of little worth. Perfection is for the few.
- There are people who always agree with the last thing they heard. These people have no opinion of their own – don’t be such a person!
- If you don’t know too much about something, go for the safest alternative.
- Listen to your conscience, because your conscience, your fears and your dreams tell you what is most important to you.
How do I use the spirit of the times and the favor of the moment to make the right decisions?
- A sense of the right timing for decisions is one of the most important success factors of all. For example, the timing of a company’s founding or the market entry of a new product can be decisive for success.
Gracian 036: In Acting or Refraining, weigh your Luck. More depends on that than on noticing your temperament. If he is a fool who at forty applies to Hippocrates for health, still more is he one who then first applies to Seneca for wisdom. It is a great piece of skill to know how to guide your luck even while waiting for it. For something is to be done with it by waiting so as to use it at the proper moment, since it has periods and offers opportunities, though one cannot calculate its path, its steps are so irregular. When you find Fortune favourable, stride boldly forward, for she favours the bold and, being a woman, the young. But if you have bad luck, keep retired so as not to redouble the influence of your unlucky star.
- Adapt and be shapeless like water. Be vigilant and flexible and take advantage of every opportunity. Be shapeless and adaptable like water. The strategist gets the best out of every situation.
Sun Tzu ch. 6: “The highest art of the warrior is to be invisible and formless, so that even the enemy spy deep in his own ranks can spy nothing out and the cleverest can suspect nothing. Knowing the enemy, you can defeat a superior number, and everyone knows what victory should look like, but what the common man does not know is that you yourself have determined the form of victory. Victory in a battle is always unique and cannot be repeated in the same form, but must be adapted to infinitely different conditions. A good military is like the course of water, which avoids the heights and leads quickly to the depths. In war, it is better to hide reality and instead attack under false pretenses. The course of water is determined by the earth formation, victory over the enemy is achieved by controlling it. War adapts to situations and conditions, just as water has no particular shape. Those who can adapt to the enemy are able to take victory and have grasped the spirit of war.”
- Act pragmatically and take advantage of every opportunity immediately. Our actions, our critical thinking, everything must be geared to the special circumstances. The world is constantly changing. With every change, the conditions, the balance of power, the opportunities and the risks change as well. This change makes new chances possible again, which were not foreseeable before. Recognize these opportunities and the positive side effects of an event and use them.
Gracian 288: Live as circumstances demand. Our acts and thoughts and all must be determined by circumstances. Will when you may, for time and tide wait for no man. Do not live by certain fixed rules, except those that relate to the cardinal virtues. Nor let your will subscribe fixed conditions, for you may have to drink the water to-morrow which you cast away today. There be some so absurdly paradoxical that they expect all the circumstances of an action should bend to their eccentric whims and not vice versa. The wise man knows that the very polestar of prudence lies in steering by the wind.
Stratagem 12: ” Lead the sheep with a light hand” – The emperor from Hui wanted to expand his power. For this he gradually demoted the feudal lords. The last remaining Yan went to war against the emperor. After a civil war which lasted 3 years, he managed to take the capital Nanjing. When he stormed the imperial palace, he discovered that the emperor’s apartment was abandoned. He had managed to escape. The new Emperor Yan suspected that the overthrown Emperor Hui would be abroad. He then sent a strong fleet to look for him. On the many journeys his troops conquered many lands but the overthrown emperor was nowhere to be found. The troops did not achieve their initial goal, but took the opportunity on the way to enlarge the empire, even though the king originally did not have this as a goal.
- A lucky streak doesn’t last forever, recognize the right time to retreat.
Gracian 038: Leave your Luck while Winning. All the best players do it. A fine retreat is as good as a gallant attack. Bring your exploits under cover when there are enough, or even when there are many of them. Luck long lasting was ever suspicious; interrupted seems safer, and is even sweeter to the taste for a little infusion of bitter-sweet. The higher the heap of luck, the greater the risk of a slip, and down comes all. Fortune pays you sometimes for the intensity of her favours by the shortness of their duration. She soon tires of carrying any one long on her shoulders.
- Take your time. It often takes a long time to catch the most favorable moment. Be patient in bad times.
Decision-making: How can I safely analyze and evaluate a situation in order to act with precision?
- Wait and act with caution. Particularly in unclear situations, the following applies: wait, sharpen your senses and gather information so that you can better assess the situation. Only then should you act purposefully.
- Enter new situations with sober and moderate expectations. This way, you are prepared for negative events and risks and avoid hasty steps. If, on the other hand, the situation develops positively, the joy is all the greater.
- Do not let yourself be dominated by your environment, but shape it and determine yourself.
- Get a personal impression. The surest way to meet the truth is through a direct, personal impression on site.
- Being and appearances: Don’t be dazzled, look beneath the surface inside.
For a complete overview of wise decision making, or a decision process, presented as a decision tree, see the e-book 500 TACTICS.
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