Breakthrough Change With Boris JoaquinSample

Breakthrough Thinking.

Growth begins with your thinking. Have you ever given a thought about your thinking - what influences your actions, your decision-making, your problem-solving?

Richard Paul said, “Critical thinking is thinking about your thinking while you're thinking in order to make your thinking better.” Do you make the best decisions that would solve my problems effectively? When I say effectively, it means that your decisions meet the following criteria:

●  They bring positive long-term outcomes;

●  They are "data-driven" - a result of carefully analyzing facts; and

●  They solve underlying problems that gave rise to other problems.

Developing your critical thinking skills is a lifetime endeavor that requires you to always ask questions and continuously test the validity and reliability of your ideas or other people’s. As you seek for truth, always remember to take charge of our own thinking and always think about our thinking.

Realizing My Default Thinking

Before you can even change the way you think, you need to discover your default thinking. Default is your automatic thought response when making a decision or solving a problem.

What are the usual default thinking that people commit when solving a problem or making decisions?

1. Band-Aid Solutions: People will usually give temporary solutions to a pressing problem without even thinking if this is actually the result of an underlying problem. For example, when you have a headache, do you immediately drink medicine without consulting a doctor first? Your headache might be normal but if the pain continues to persist over time, then this might be a cause of an even bigger issue.
2. Taking Facts as Gospel Truth: Gospel truth is any idea that is taken as absolutely true. For instance, have you ever heard a story from your closed friend or family member only to find out that this story is actually inaccurate? Have we ever stopped and reflected to check if these stories truly transpired? Or are these just a result of mere speculation? After all, it might just be a gossip and not gospel truth.

Can you relate to these two default thinking? Have you ever committed this once in your life? If you did, fret not because you can improve by applying the breakthrough thinking strategies. 

1. Knowing the Real Score

○  Knowing the real score means gathering the right facts to a problem (since not all given information is true). A Breakthrough Thinker acts like an investigator who continuously asks the right questions to all people involved in a crime scene. He doesn’t rely on his own gut. He always tests the truthfulness of the witnesses’ testimonies. As an investigator, he knows that not all people will tell the truth. Some people might tell pieces of evidence or even cover up the truth because they are afraid to be involved in the situation. This is the reason why a Breakthrough Thinker corroborates the testimonies and crime evidence to check its consistency, validity and reliability.

1. Discovering the Core Problem

○  After knowing the real score or the right information, the Breakthrough Thinker conducts root cause analysis to discover what the core problem is. Let’s apply this strategy to the crime scene: the investigator might already have found out who the killer is but he must ask why the suspect murdered the victim? Probably because the killer is a drug addict or the suspect just acted in self-defense. Why did the suspect act in self-defense? It might be because he is trying to protect himself from being raped. In this situation, the Breakthrough Thinker continuously probes and asks the “why-question” until he discovers what the real problem is. We should always remember to continue the investigation even after finding out who's at fault. We should always know what is the reason behind it in order to give the right solution to the problem. 

Developing your critical thinking skills is not an easy job. It’s a lifetime endeavor that requires you to always ask questions and continuously test your ideas or other people’s insights if these are actually valid and reliable. As you journey towards seeking the truth, let us always remember to take charge of our own thinking and always think about our thinking.