Influence Your Environment

You can improve your life just by influencing what you allow in your environment. Begin by removing some of the negative things in it and replacing them with more positive and stimulating things.

Negative factors can increase stress and inhibit your ability to reach your full potential. Examine your life to determine which negative factors are weighing you down, and then  use the list below to assess which negative behaviors are influencing your life. Once you have identified them, you can begin to change them.

Do you have any of these behaviors, thought or feelings?

• Eating disorders; anorexic, bulimia.

• Anger, rage, hatred, racism.

• Unforgiveness.

• Compulsive.

• Perfectionism – have to have it done now or done right.

• Negative friends – people who bring you down, are not supportive, and do not make you feel happy to be around.

• Anxiety.

• Depression.

• Negative thoughts – I’ll never be somebody…

• Overwhelming responsibilities.

• Volunteering for something you really don’t want to do.

• Addictions.

Once you begin to remove those unwanted negative behaviors, thoughts or feelings, you will begin to bring more positive elements into your life. Positive factors are anything that brings positive good feelings and results. For example:

• Get a life! Stop thinking that you should be “somebody” and learn to like yourself for the person you are.

• Self-improvements.

• Develop your communication skills and put them to use with family and friends.

• Learn an effective problem-solving strategy.

• Make new friends who are positive and upbeat about life.

• Create responsibilities that you are happy about.

• Find something you really enjoy doing, something that makes you want to get out of bed and get started.

• Take time to laugh – find a good movie or book.

Another way to positively enhance your environment is to learn critical thinking techniques.

Just as increasing the amount of exercise you get increases your physical fitness, increasing your critical thinking abilities can increase your brain “fitness.” You may believe you are already an effective thinker, and perhaps you are. Well-known psychologist Jean Piaget proposed four cognitive developmental stages through which children progress. The last stage takes place at around age 11 and continues throughout adulthood. However, many people never progress fully into this stage. This may important for you because this cognitive stage is marked by higher order thinking that is more logical and scientific in nature.

Piaget believed that people are not born with an innate intelligence, but that intelligence plays out as a person interacts with their environment. Being challenged with the right environment may be key to whether or not an adolescent progresses into the highest cognitive stage.

Unless you took a course that developed your critical thinking skills, it’s possible that undeveloped critical thinking skills are playing a role in how satisfied you are with your life and could even be preventing you from finding your success in life.

When critical thinking is part of someone’s overall thinking process, decision making becomes easier and more effective because scientific reasoning enables the decision maker to critique information and better understand on what information to base their decisions.

Don’t let the lack of good critical thinking skills prevent your success and ability to make a better life for yourself.

The “Improve Your Intelligence and Create Change” Life Management Skills Workshop will help you improve your critical thinking skills.