Are You Learning to Think Clearly?

CLEAR thinking is a major factor in a successful life. It is of immense value in day-by-day living and decision-making, saving a person much time and expense.

However, even more importantly, the person who thinks clearly is helped to avoid deceptions and dangers that otherwise easily mislead the unwary. A clear outlook assists him to cope with otherwise thorny problems and situations in life.

Why Most People Do Not Think Clearly

Many people simply passively prefer to let others do their thinking for them. For most, therefore, the basic pattern of thinking is largely fixed by the community and the world in which they live. They think and act in a way similar to those around them. Even in relatively minor matters of life this is discernible, as advertising and the mass media dictate their viewpoint. And in major areas of life, the way other people do much of their thinking for them may be illustrated by what occurs in wartime.

When their home country publishes propaganda rallying the population to war, do most people carefully analyze all the issues involved in the conflict? Or, do they just accept what they are told to think? In writing about World War I, the late Winston Churchill observed: “Only a signal is needed to transform these multitudes of peaceful peasants and workmen into the mighty hosts which will tear each other to pieces.” He further observed that, told what to do, most people unthinkingly responded. (The World Crisis, Volume VI, page 93) Twenty-five years later another generation let the same kind of thinking lead them into a far greater conflict, World War II.

What has resulted to many persons because they allowed others to do their thinking for them? Millions have died or been maimed, often fighting wars on foreign soil over issues they did not understand. And now we see that the world’s pattern of thinking, and the efforts it has produced, have brought no lasting peace. In fact, the world is armed with far more devastating weapons today than it ever had before.

But are not some turning against the thinking behind such wars? Yes, many of the younger generation are rebelling against the “thinking” of their elders. Yet is the outlook of the youthful rebels really any clearer or more satisfying than that from which they seek to flee? Has their rebellion led them to anything truly better?

The “thinking” of world leaders at one extreme, and that of youthful rebels at the other, combine to show that man’s way of thinking is producing no lastingly desirable results. Perhaps you feel compelled to ask, ‘If that is so, then, how is clear thinking possible?’

A Definite Goal Needed for Clear Thinking

To learn to think clearly demands, first of all, that one have a purpose or goal in life. Why is that so?

Well, journeying through life can be likened to going on a trip; the more certain your destination, the more positive your routing can be. Suppose you live in Madrid (Spain) and you say you are going to Germany. That is a very broad goal and a number of alternate routes present themselves. However, traveling from Madrid to Berlin, Germany, greatly minimizes the number of different roads you might travel; it is a more precise goal. Thus, too, the more definite one’s goal in life, the more stable one’s thinking is likely to be.

Yet, did you know that very few individuals can state simply and clearly just what is their goal in life? A comment by Professor Aaron Levenstein at City College in New York city underscores how purposeless most people’s lives really are:

“People may have a vague understanding of their present position but they cannot make up their minds where they want to go. They live out their lives without a philosophy. They do not succeed in reaching any goal, because they have never set one up.”

While it is true, as Professor Levenstein says, that most people have no goal in life, is this not somewhat understandable? What lasting and satisfying goal does any part of the world really offer a person toward which he might guide his thinking?

On the other hand, a genuine Christian has the essentials for attaining such clear thinking. Why? Because he has a purpose in life, seeking, above all, to please God. Nevertheless, to enjoy the clear thinking that this makes possible, he must put forth a genuine effort. He needs to study the Bible. There he learns about the reward of eternal life in God’s righteous new order. His love of God and his desire to attain to the reward held out by God motivate him to conform to God’s high moral requirements and to quit being “fashioned after this system of things.” Thus he makes moral changes in his life and these often greatly aid his thinking, unburdening his conscience and mind of unnecessary loads brought on by an immoral life.​—Rom. 12:2.

However, some might ask, does not having a single goal in life result in a person’s having a “closed” mind instead of an “open” one? Let us see.

Usually when people speak of an “open” mind they are simply saying that they are tolerant of another’s views. But merely tolerating another’s views does not really require thinking, does it? In fact, a completely “open” mind could be likened to a pipe that lets just anything flow through it, even sewage. No self-respecting person wants a mind contaminated with garbage. So, he needs to be selective, he needs to sift out what he accepts into his mind. In short, he needs to think. However, he does not want to be so narrow or prejudicial that he refuses to consider facts that can improve his thinking.

A balance in his thinking is therefore necessary. As Professor Levenstein put it: “It is necessary to think both narrowly and broadly.” How do we do this?

The Benefit of Right Standards

By having a standard with which to measure new information presented one can achieve balanced thinking. An individual thereby controls what comes into his mind and is not diverted from achieving his goal, yet he does not close out worthwhile new information.

Here again a Christian has a source of great aid. How so? He has the Bible as a sure guide for his thinking. On the one hand, his mind is “open,” that is, receptive to new information from virtually every field of human endeavor, including the arts and sciences. He properly weighs such new information against his Biblical standard and fits it into his pattern of thinking. On the other hand, his mind is “closed” to information entirely inconsistent with his Bible-based goal; it can be rejected as not worthy of further attention.

Every day the clear-thinking person must filter or screen out that which is wrong and to which his mind is properly “closed.” Constant bombardment of propaganda from the public press, newspapers and magazines, as well as by books, television and radio programs, make this more essential now than ever before.

Of course, much that is published today immediately shows itself to be unworthy of one’s attention. Novels, plays, or television programs, for instance, that glorify sexual perversion, immorality or violence are among these. Catering to base desires, their purpose is usually to discourage worthwhile thinking, really numbing the mind in favor of unthinking passion.

But even those books and programs from which one does gain some useful information require the exercise of caution. They often subtly reveal a wrong trend of thinking, perhaps being influenced by unproved theories such as evolution. Thus some publications on child care, history, natural science, archaeology, medicine, psychology, grade-school textbooks and even some so-called Bible reference materials, make allusion to or presuppose evolution to be a “fact” when discussing their varied subjects. Here, particularly, the “open-minded” person must exercise caution when reading if he is to avoid being adversely influenced or, as some first-century proponents of wrong doctrine were described, becoming “mentally diseased.”​—1 Tim. 6:3-11.

Are you learning to think clearly? You have made a fine start if you have a definite goal in life and if you have a standard by which to judge new information brought to your attention. But you might say, ‘I do have a goal in life and a standard. It is not these big things that boggle my thinking. Rather, the multitude of small daily decisions​—these are what confuse me. How can I bestir my thinking faculties to cope with these smaller daily cares in the most efficient manner?’

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RIGHT STANDARDS

GOAL IN LIFE

Thinking Aids for a Balky Brain

DOES your brain seem to balk when it comes to everyday thinking and decision-making? Perhaps you reason that “thinkers” are always scholars or geniuses. Well, that is not true. Most real thinkers are ordinary people who know how to cope with the countless multitude of day-by-day challenges facing them. What can aid you to develop the same ability?

Do You Keep All Your Goals in View?

As explained in the previous article, the basic aid to better thinking is to keep always in mind your overall purpose in life. When your main goal is lost from sight, thinking becomes uncertain.

But also important to prodding your thinking processes are what might be called secondary goals. Some day-by-day problems never get solved because people think only of long-range, principal goals, ignoring smaller yet important goals.

How secondary goals assist thinking can, again, be illustrated by a journey. The person traveling from Madrid, Spain, to Berlin, Germany, knows what is his main goal. However, he might wish to segment the trip into smaller sections, perhaps making stops at Toulouse and Paris, France. The overall trip then seems shorter and he has an immediate goal toward which to direct his thinking.

Similarly, with our lives. A person may know his primary goal in life. Keeping that foremost, he should, after carefully weighing his own circumstances, decide on certain subgoals. Working toward these makes his main goal seem to come easier and more rapidly.

Thus, while a Christian has the main goal of gaining God’s approval to life eternal, he wisely decides upon subgoals in life. A missionary conditions his thinking toward the goal of holding onto his privilege of teaching people in a foreign land. But, he might also set goals of learning his new language or the customs of the people better. Or, a Christian father, though he has the same primary goal as the missionary, may set a goal of building his family spiritually by a regular Bible study arrangement. On the other hand, his goal may be to balance their study program with family recreation.

Thereafter when either of these men considers a decision, he must not only think, ‘How will this affect my main goal in life?’ but also ask, ‘How will this affect any secondary goals I have?’ This helps to keep daily thinking straight, in focus.

In fact, people can greatly aid their thinking by giving each day a goal. Knowing that you would like to accomplish certain tasks within the day often prods you to consider how to do all things in the most efficient way. This, of course, means that each day must be planned.

Some persons find time to plan their day’s work by rising a little earlier in the morning or by staying up a little later the evening before. Others reclaim time otherwise lost to television for use in this way. Some take just a few minutes before leaving their job each day to lay out the next day’s activities.

One busy executive with nine children does much of his planning while on a commuter train. He says: ‘If I didn’t have that privacy each day, I‘d never do important thinking and daily programing.’

Do You Think Systematically?

Another help to budge a balking brain is to learn to think in a systematic way. This calls for trying to see every side of a matter. To learn how to do this, some have suggested approaching problems as though playing the game “Twenty Questions.” In this game a group or panel is given twenty chances to ferret out a subject on the moderator’s mind. The idea is to eliminate as many probabilities as possible with each question, progressively narrowing the field to a logical answer.

The game embodies a model of productive thinking, actually the principles of scientific research, namely, running through a list of questions to eliminate probabilities until one can single out an answer. An engineer reviews mentally whether a given problem can be solved by electric, hydraulic, chemical, mechanical or other means. A doctor making a diagnosis mentally runs through a list of diseases with similar symptoms, endeavoring by process of elimination to arrive at the right conclusion.

This process of ordered thinking can be illustrated with a family who, having decided to move to another location, set down a list of requirements with regard to a new home they must find: For example: (1) Do we want a house or an apartment? (2) A new one or an older one? (3) One or two stories? (4) Price not over what fixed amount? (5) In city or suburb? (6) Maximum distance from employment? (7) From schools? (8) From shopping facilities and other conveniences, and so forth?

Until the habit of approaching all problems systematically becomes ingrained in you, do not be embarrassed about employing a written checklist similar to this. Of course, such thinking can be learned by using it in connection with all your daily tasks, not just the major moves in life.

For instance, are you a thinking housewife? Instead of secretly envying so-called “talented” women, why not use the same thinking processes they must employ in order to do their work? Samm S. Baker in his book Your Key to Creative Thinking (1962) shows ways of doing this:

“A leading professor of psychology stated, ‘The capacity to create . . . is not limited to the highly gifted person, but is the birthright of every person of average talent.’ . . . If you’re a housewife, there are many creative challenges all about you, waiting to be solved for the convenience and enjoyment of your family. Consider something as simple as a clothes closet. You can permit a messy situation to develop, as in so many homes . . . Or, you can plan creatively so that everything has a clean, orderly place in the closet, saving time and temper for everyone in the family, and winning praise for yourself.”​—Pages 1, 17.

The same can be said for your cooking. One noted psychologist said: “To originate a first-rate soup is more creative than daubing a second-rate painting.”

Or, as a parent contemplating a vacation for your family, do you really stop to think the trip through? Do you consider all the possible problems that might arise as to your automobile? Clothing for a different climate? Entertainment for the children while you are driving, and so on?

Or, do you have difficulty in getting along with certain people? Have you thought about what definite steps to take that may possibly resolve the situation?

In every area of life, systematically thinking through whatever confronts you, consistent with your goals in life, is of immeasurable value in jarring a complacent brain.

Do You Balk at Decision-making?

Another aid to stir hesitant thinking is to remember that problems just do not “go away” as a result of putting them off or refusing to make a decision. Not making any decision at all, in effect, is itself to make a decision. Many persons who balk when faced with decisions, find that later on they are more difficult to make. Why do many have that tendency?

Some fear imagined consequences. Others recall past decisions, and, regretting the way things turned out, hesitate to make new ones. But suppose they had decided another way on those past decisions​—who can really say things would have worked out much better?

On the other hand, possibly you have made wrong decisions in the past. Should pride now stymie you from making future ones? No less a thinker than Albert Einstein said regarding his own conclusions from study: “I think and think, for months, for years, ninety-nine times the conclusion is false. The hundredth I am right.” Fortunately, in personal decisions the average is often much higher than that.

However, as an aid in making proper and prompt decisions, ask yourself, ‘Am I willing to consider other people’s views, especially if they are in any way involved in the decision?’ A wise supervisor or family head appreciates that he is not the only one who knows how to think. Yes, even on the family level, each member may have something to contribute. Rudolph Flesch notes:

“If you want to pool quickly the viewpoints of various ages and sexes, stay right at home. The basis of clear thinking . . . is the realization that we think with our experience. The family . . . is the place to learn this once and for all. . . . Family team-work in thinking is common when it comes to big decisions like buying a new house. This is where husbands, wives and older children get together discussing the problem, weighing the pros and cons of possible solutions, planning with pencil and paper, and surveying the available factual information.”​—The Art of Clear Thinking (1951), pages 160, 163.

Of course, not only in major projects, but even in lesser ones it is a good idea to consult other people. The Biblical principle is true that “in the multitude of counselors there is accomplishment.” (Prov. 15:22) Considering other people’s advice also prevents one from making hasty or “snap” decisions. As another proverb reminds us, “everyone that is hasty surely heads for want.”​—Prov. 21:5.

Another source of information based on experience is reading material. Here one can benefit from the experience of the author, perhaps a person who has spent years in the field covered by his book or article. Nevertheless, if you read to get information before making a decision, be selective. Often only a small part of all that is published on a given subject is of real value to you. Keep clearly in mind the kind of information you want. Avoid tangents. In other words, rather than “speed reading” learn “speed thinking,” keeping your mind on your purpose.

Once you have a reasonable amount of facts gathered from reading and from discussion, and time has been spent on meditation, then make your decision. Finally, unless overpowering evidence to the contrary later presents itself, stick to what you have decided.​—Jas. 1:5-8.

By way of summary, to learn to think clearly requires riveting your mind to your primary goal in life, as well as setting up other, secondary, goals in life. Then as you go about handling daily problems, plan your work, think systematically and make decisions in a way that is consistent with your goals.