Do You Check Out What They Say? How do You Decide? Part 2 in the Approach to Life series

How do you Make Up your Mind?
How do you make up your mind? Do you think things though for yourself? Or do you look at the person suggesting an idea, and ask yourself how well-known or how famous they are? Do you assume that their success in acting, or singing, or whatever makes them an instant expert in everything?

Do you assume that becoming famous - or speaking convincingly - also makes them an expert in economics? Or do you check to see if they have both expertise and experience in the ideas they are promoting?

Is it their own idea? Or are their ideas directed by vested interests who have a direct interest - usually money or power - in the outcome? The secret of success is to make sure you investigate their motivation.

Does the person benefit by your acceptance of their ideas? If so, how? Who provides their income, or pays their salary? Is it an entity or a corporation which gains if you buy their story? Will their income be affected if they were to come up with an unbiased opinion as opposed to one influenced by the source of their income?

Can they be relied upon to tell an unbiased story, or will their self-interest prejudice the story they give you? Producing thoughtful, carefully considered answers to all these questions will change your life, this is how to avoid being manipulated.

Does the End Justify the Means?
Many people and politicians have decided they prefer power and money rather than to maintain their integrity. So ask yourself if they could have such a large stake in the outcome that they are willing to deceive you to achieve their aims?

Adolf Hitler of Nazi Germany (National Socialism - Nationalsozialismus) is famous for saying: The broad masses of a population are more amenable to the appeal of rhetoric than to any other force. So his evil secret of success was to become a persuasive speaker and then persuade gullible Germans to believe everything he said, no matter how absurd. After all, believed Hitler, the end justifies the means. He even said: What good fortune for those in power that people do not think.

Does the person or politician believe that the end justifies the means? Do you see that unethical behavior is unethical - dishonest - no matter how much they might benefit from the outcome. Investing the time to understand this dilemma, and to come to your own conclusion, is a worth-while effort which will change your life. Wisdom is not parroting another, it lies in appreciating the consequences, which means thinking for yourself and coming to your own conclusions.

Do you have a Government Education?
Much of the educational system seems to be more interested in teaching people what to think rather than how to think. Do you know how to think for yourself? Or do you just regurgitate other people's opinions?

Education leads many people to mistakenly believe they know how to think: You just listen to what someone says. If it agrees with your existing take on the matter then they're right, if they disagree then they must be wrong.

But how much thinking does this need? Isn't this just seeing if you agree or disagree?

Discover a New Way to Think
Here's the real way to think: Listen to what someone says. If it agrees with your existing opinion, then you now know that at least one other person agrees with you. Although this does not prove you're right, no more thought is required for now.

But when it disagrees with your existing thinking? When it seems to be wrong? Take the opportunity to change your life by exploring the dichotomy: What they see as true is what you see as false.

Find out why they think it's true. But you think it's false, so your positions contradict each other. The secret of success is for you to understand why you disagree, transcend your current understanding, and come up with a perspective that reconciles your different positions. This will stop you thinking they must have the wrong end of the stick.

Of course, it may be that they - or you - do have it wrong. Are they mistaken or trying to mislead you? Then you either correct your previously incorrect position, or you understand why they're wrong. In all cases, you've investigated the matter and now have a more powerful perspective, you've increased your personal power.

Then you engage in empowering thought instead of jumping to conclusions and assuming they're wrong and you're right. Or vice versa.

© Copyright worldwide Cris Baker, www.LifeStrategies.net All rights reserved. Republishing welcomed under Creative Commons noncommercial no derivatives license preserving all links intact, so please +1 and share this widely!

Food for Thought
"Education has failed in a very serious way to convey the most important lesson science can teach: skepticism."

- Professor David Suzuki, Ph.D. Canadian academic, science broadcaster, environmental activist, author

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."

- Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865), 16th president of the U.S.A.