Finding Clarity

Gain Clarity, Get Committed, and Capture Your Goals With Critical Thinking

Humanists are by and large internally motivated. Our philosophy helps us to prioritize our ethics and find balance between our competing needs, desires and responsibilities. Plus, and this is a big plus, the time we spend on learning how to think well helps us to find clarity.

I say this because a LOT of people think that critical thinking is boring and intellectual. But spending some time learning how to think about how you think is actually the key to gaining clarity and from clarity commitment and motivation to accomplish your goals, whatever they might be. 

So, let’s talk about the process of finding clarity in the context of critical thinking and Humanist ethics and how this will help us to be more successful in life. 

First up: Refection.

What do you want to accomplish and more importantly, why?

If you want to gain clarity of purpose in your life, you need to spend some time considering why you think the things you think and whether what you think is even so. This is the power of critical thinking and the power of why. Asking yourself why helps you properly define the real problem you are trying to solve. This helps bring clarity and puts in you a position to be successful! In a way that focusing on what you want to accomplish won’t.

Next: Visioning.

Now that you are clear on your goal, the next step is to consider what an ideal solution to your problem might be. And again, we have to do something thinking to get this right. If you don’t want your solution to be limited, you need to ask yourself is what if.  What if things were different? What if I could end world hunger? What if there were no limitations put on you. Finding the motivation to take on the world is tough. Spending time thinking about what if possibilities helps you gain the motivation by helping you truly understand what is at stake and what can be gained by your efforts. 

Finally: Strategy.

Once you know what you want to accomplish, why you want to accomplish and what the benefits are to acheiving your goals, the next step is to develop a pragmatic strategy to accomplish it. Pie in the sky ideas are great but they won’t become reality unless you do some hard thinking about what is possible in reality. What steps do you need to take to get there. What will actually work vs. what do you just think will work. And again, critical thinking is key. If your assumptions about what works and what doesn’t is flawed, you aren’t going to succeed.  Critical thinking is key.

Here is a nice exercise, share with me what your goals are and more importantly why you chose that goal.  

Ten Humanist Commitments

We Humanists don’t do commandments. We do, however, feel very strongly about our commitments to others.  This is why the Kochhar Humanist Education Center has issued 10 Humanist Commitments to Education.  These are the values Humanists feel should be taught in our schools.  http://cohe.humanistinstitute.org/?page_id=14747

The website also includes resources in case you want to teach your own children these values and skills. For the record, the 10 values Humanist feel we should be committed to teaching our children are:

1. Altruism
2. Caring for the World Around Us
3. Critical Thinking
4. Empathy
5. Ethical Development
6. Global Awareness
7. Humility
8. Peace and Social Justice
9. Responsibility
10. Service and Participation

 “This ethical mission is an essential part of all education, public and private, elementary through high school and university.  In a democratic and pluralist society, we believe that the values presented should be the moral foundation of education.”

If you agree – add your name to the document. http://cohe.humanistinstitute.org/?page_id=14747

Shopping Cart Morality

Image: xedos4 / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

As far as I can tell, there are three types of people in the world. Those who always return their shopping carts to the cart rack, those who don’t, and those who return their carts only when it is convenient or when someone makes a point of reminding them to do it.

I have said on many occasions, being a moral person isn’t about the big good vs. evil decisions. Those are easy to make. The real challenge of moral living is doing the right thing when the stakes are low. In other words, a moral person does the right thing because it’s the right thing to do and not just because it’s convenient.  

Moral people don’t do the right thing to make themselves look good, though that is obviously a benefit. They do the right thing because they understand they are responsible for their actions and they find value and pride in doing their part, however small, to make the world a slightly better place.

When it comes to carts, not putting the carts back is a problem. It makes parking lots dangerous and does real damage to people’s properties. If you dislike driving into a parking lot and not being able to find a place to park your car because all the spots have carts in them, then the question you need to ask yourself is this: are you part of the problem or part of the solution. Because if you are not putting your carts back, you are part of the problem. Only putting them some of the time means you aren’t putting them back all the time.

Imagine if everyone put their carts back. Now, go and do your part to make that happen. Be a Humanist and do the right thing every time and not just when it is convenient.