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Allen James' reading for December 4th,
"Use good sense" (James).
I've always been a big believer in using the good sense we naturally have instilled in our brains. I'm not saying I've always "USED" good sense; believe me, like most, I've made bad choices, most always attributed to not using my good sense of judgement.
Recently I came across these great tips for utilizing good sense and why it's important. I hope you'll agree and make a conscious effort to use yours more regularly. I'm going to post half today and the other half in tomorrow's posting.
Become familiar with the purpose and meaning of common sense. According to Merriam Webster, common sense is about exercising "sound and prudent judgment based on a simple perception of the situation or facts" (merriam/webster.com). This definition suggests common sense depends on not over-complicating the situation (simple), applying experience and general knowledge to the situation (sound and prudent judgment), and implicit in this is self-trust our considered experience is valid for future situations. Karl Albrecht calls common sense practical intelligence. He defines it as "the mental ability to cope with the challenges and opportunities of life". He explains common sense is situational, dependent on context, and our common sense in one aspect of our lives might be excellent while failing abysmally in another aspect of our lives. As to the purpose of common sense, it is basically thinking which prevents us from making irrational mistakes or decisions, a thinking approach which may open our eyes to the possibility of insisting on being correct prevents us from seeing the bigger picture.
Common sense can also serve the purpose of removing us from being hidebound to rules, theories, ideas, and guidelines which would hamper or stifle the best decision in a particular situation. In other words, just because something says so, or just because it has always been a certain way, is not a reason to abandon common sense about present needs and changed circumstances.
Understand the ease with which the human mind is convinced an idea is correct contrary to indicators clearly demonstrating otherwise. We're human; we're fallible. And our brains work in certain ways as a means of providing shortcuts to ensure survival in a world where being chased by predators could end our lives. In a modern world where caves and saber toothed tigers are no longer a constant companion, some of this reactive, split second judging can land us in hot water as we react instead of reflecting, assume instead of teasing apart the realities, and follow habit instead of challenging its continued utility. Some of the things our amazing mind is capable of doing to override common sense include:
- Maintaining our own sense of reality out of proportion with identifiable reality. While each of us creates a reality out of our own experiences and makes sense of our world through this personal lens, for the most part, we understand that our sense of reality is only a small portion of a much larger picture. For some people, however, their sense of reality becomes the only sense of reality and they believe that they can manipulate or magically transform situations to turn out the way they want them to be. In steps irrational behavior for some, and insanity for the less fortunate.
- Reflex or associative thinking. This is reactive thinking that is based simply on what we've learned through life, reenacting learned models and applying them to each new situation as it appears, without modifying the thought processes being applied. This type of thinking leads to errors in thinking because we refuse to push beyond standard associations formed in our mind about how things "should be". When we apply what we know to a present situation by reference to a similar past situation by merely applying our mind's template without adjusting for the context, we're overriding common sense. Even where this template is a bad fit, the insistent or biased mind just ignores the parts of the template that don't fit by trimming them off mentally and only seeing the parts that "match". Hence, we have our problem solved without thinking it through. This type of thinking tends to make us easily swayed by current popular theories and fads, such as the current tendency in some societies to control social opinion through inflating fears of germs, criminals and terrorists, and job unavailability.
- Invoking absolute certainty. Absolutist black and white thinking about the world and others in it in a way that never allows space for doubt is often a cause for forgetting to apply common sense. For such a thinker, the "one true way" is the only way and therefore seems like common sense even though it isn't.
- Pigheadedness. A simple unwillingness to be wrong. Ever. Founded on any number of reasons including insecurities, fear, incomprehension, anger, and fear of ridicule, pigheadedness is the cause of many an irrational and unjustifiable decision or action.
- Divorce yourself from reality. This isn't an invitation to insanity. This is a request to consider that your
sense of reality isn't real. What you see is what you've programmed
your brain to see. And once you start down the slippery slope of
self-confirmation that reality is only ever what you see it as, you're
open to the possibilities of bigotry, selfishness, intolerance, and prejudice because you'll constantly seek to make everyone and everything else conform to your standard of reality, and your standard of "what's right". By divorcing yourself from this one-sided reality, and learning as much
as you can about how other people perceive the world and our place in
it, you begin to make room for common sense to grow because your sense
is built on "common" experiences, not just your own.
- Start by taking a look at your own emotions, beliefs, and practices to make sure they're not overriding your common sense. Test different scenarios in your mind to try and ascertain the practical consequences of applying the decision or action the way you want to. Is it practical, have you accounted for everything, and what will happen if things go wrong? If things go wrong, can you fix them and if you can't, what will be the consequences?
- Consult with others. If your reality is clouding your judgment too much, reach out and discuss the situation with others to gain wider appreciation of their perspectives and ideas. This is most important where you are too close to a situation and any decision or action you take might be infected by your proximity.
- Acquaint yourself with your reflective mind.
This is the part of your thinking where true common sense resides. The
part that takes a bit of time out from the cleverness, the brightness,
the importance of everything rushing at you right now and suggests that
it's time to add a dose of cold water to the excitement. Reflective
intelligence is about being able to stand back and view the bigger
picture so that you realistically appraise the situation or environment
directly around you rather than forcing yourself to conform to its
suitability or practicing wishful thinking. After an accurate appraisal
of the situation, a reflective mindset enables you to set goals that are
realistic given the parameters you're working within, and to take
sensible actions toward meeting those goals. Daniel Willingham cites examples of people who throw money at the stock
market, or people who choose unsuitable life situations as people who
made decisions or took actions without using reflective thinking. Rationalizing
that external signs seem fine while ignoring complete mismatches to the
person you are or the beliefs you hold is a denial of common sense. In
other words, just because other people do or use something effectively
isn't a sign that it will suit you too; you need to put your own
reflective mind to work on each situation to decide whether it will be a
fit for you, your lifestyle, and those around you directly impacted by
your deci
- Do less, think more. Siimon Reynolds says that many of us are suffering from "Obsessive Do-Itis". This simply means we're obsessed with doing more all the time instead of thinking. And while we're running around frantically being busy all the time, we're not being productive and we're contributing to a culture that admires incessantly busy people. Is this common sense? Hardly. It is about working harder and longer without taking time out to reflect.
- Allocate thinking time every single day, even if it's only 20 minutes. Siimon Reynolds suggests that you try this for one week, and says that at the end of it, you'll notice much reduced stress levels. And your common sense will improve markedly.
- Reacquaint yourself with your rapid cognition. The previous step has just suggested that you need to reflect more before you take decisions or act. But the obvious flipside to reflection is the reality that some things need very fast thinking and rapid decisions that will produce sound results. Rapid cognition is the type of thinking that tells you that you're not going to connect with a person the moment that you meet them, or that a poorly placed ladder is going to fall sooner rather than later and needs to be shifted pronto, or that you need to quickly jump out of the way of an out-of-control car now. How do you marry rapid cognition to reflective thinking under the rubric of "common sense"? It's simple - spend your reflecting time wisely so that you will react wisely when quick thinking is required. Common sense builds on your reflection over past experiences, enabling you to refine your understanding of the world and how it works time and time again. This is in contrast to a person who only ever reacts on gut reactions, biases, and has failed to reflect on prior experiences. Reflection will bring about sound "gut reactions" or fast assessments of situations because your reaction is based on having taken the time to work through errors and successes of past experiences.
- Malcolm Gladwell says in Blink that "decisions made very quickly can be every bit as good as decisions made cautiously and deliberately". The problem arises when we want something to be other than what it really is - falling back into our own idea of reality rather than the many realities around us. And that's when our common sense fails us.
Tomorrow we'll complete our discussion......keep looking up. : ) AJ
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