South African Motivational Speaker, guest speaker, and facilitator, Dr Steve Harris, defines Critical Thinking as a mental process for reviewing the integrity of your thoughts. In so doing, you will discover what you must unlearn to become successful and significant. This requires identifying certain tendencies that you may have in selecting information that supports your existing biases and beliefs.

Dr Steve, also known as the Mind Doctor due to his role as a “mind coach” for the Springbok rugby team, believes that we need critical thinking to access the life skills that will enable us to deal with change and retain relevance. In 21 Lessons for the 21st Century (2018), Yuval Harari writes, “Emphasise general-purpose life skills. Most important will be the ability to deal with change, learn new things, and preserve your mental balance in unfamiliar situations. To keep up with the world of 2050, you will need not merely to invent new ideas and products – you will, above all, need to reinvent yourself again and again.” (Harari, 2018)

Are You a Victim of Your Self-righteous Delusions?

Socratic questioning uses disciplined questioning to clarify and explore the origin of your thinking. Metacognition is the awareness of your thought processes and understanding the patterns behind them. It involves the questions: Why do I think what I think? And why do I believe what I believe? When confronted with evidence that does not fit my beliefs, do I remain blind? Am I a puppet of my beliefs, trapped in self-righteous delusions?

It is the ability to think about what you’re thinking about and question your current experiences and beliefs. Then you can link them to earlier ones to stimulate a deeper, interrelated, and relevant understanding. The practice involves looking for commonalities and differences beyond their superficial elements. To do this requires you to access your mindsets, perspectives, and assumptions.

Critical Thinking Brings Rationality

Once we are open to practising critical thinking combined with evidence, we can better see the world as it is. We can replace overdramatic and catastrophising world views and irrational fears with calm and regain mental control. This requires insight, described as having the capacity to gain an accurate and deep understanding of someone or something based on external realities. In this state, we can make better decisions, avoid being stressed by the wrong things, and redirect our energy according to our absolute priorities.

Metacognition refers to your awareness of your cognitive processes. It is the ability to think about what thoughts you are having, and in so doing, check your thoughts for accuracy before they become concrete. Only then can you take a deeper approach.

When you attentively and repeatedly practice critical thinking, with its respect for evidence and metacognition, you will likely conclude that you need to start unlearning some of the ideas you have. These things fall into the category of Mega Misconceptions.

You can learn a lot about yourself by critically reflecting on both pleasant and painful experiences. In addition, reflecting on what an experience has helped you learn can lead to growth. Times of stress are also times of development, and if we use adversity properly, we will mature.

Obstacles to Critical Thinking

We struggle to think critically because we have been socialised or “mind-captured” to see what is in line with what we already believe. However, the risk is that we may be entertaining a reassuring lie. Coupled with this, we are flawed at seeing what is not in line with our existing beliefs. The risk here is that this may be an inconvenient truth.

Motivational Speaker Dr Steve Harris translates a powerful combination of real-world experience, business success and academic insight into a language we can all understand. His background as a World Champion Sportsperson and Award-Winning Entrepreneur set the perfect stage for his MBA (UCT) and PhD on Mental Toughness.

Team Building Facilitator for Companies

Dr Steve Harris offers a five-part modular motivational series, either in person or online, to help you and your team manage challenges and get the most from your present and future conditions, help focus on improving your teams holistic wellness and to offer strategic planning and facilitation. All of his programs are underpinned by the discoveries he made from his PhD and subsequent break through work in Mental Toughness. Acquire more information on his motivational coaching series or schedule a booking with Dr Steve.