Being A Critical Thinker
Although everyone is capable of being a critical thinker, not everyone takes the time to develop this great skill. Many of us waste time without even realizing it, sitting in front of the television or blankly scrolling through our phones. Instead of wasting time we should be working our brains, contemplating about our days and evaluating the day’s weaknesses and strengths. Later I will go into detail about the many different ways they I unknowingly practice critical thinking on a daily basis. In order to guarantee lifetime employability there are certain skills and strategies one must practice. Those include practicing proper etiquette, communication, time management and goal setting. In order to guarantee success once must be committed to
…show more content…
life long learning, never settling, always staying up to date with trainings and personal development. After reviewing a few critical thinking articles I realized that many of the skills they talked about I already practiced. During my service in the military I had the opportunity to work with so many different cultures and ethnicities. I consider myself to be a very open minded person, but my experiences defiantly opened my eyes and made me aware as to why having an open mind is such crucial skill in regards to critical thinking. Sometimes I feel like I devote too much of time practicing reflective thinking. Analyzing situations, and events that take place at work or in my personal life. I feel like reflective thinking is an important critical thinking skill because it allows us to learn from our mistakes and make better decisions in the future.
Critical thinking not only allows us to solve problems, but it steers us to a higher level of thinking. In both my professional life, and my personal life I tend to always ask questions, simple answers just aren’t enough for me. I’m certainly not afraid to ask questions or do research if the answer I receive from someone seems a bit off. When gathering information I always make sure the information I’m receiving and giving is credible, and accurate. Especially at work when I had to give presentations it was very important to me that the information I was sharing was accurate and relevant to my topic. I admit that I am an over analyzer which can sometimes be a bad thing. I always consider more than one perspective before making decisions, and I like to explore alternative methods to everything. Although engaging in daily critical thinking is very healthy and beneficial to personal and professional development, we must be careful not to over do it when it comes to our personal life because it can become obsessive.
Proper professional etiquette goes hand in hand with lifetime employability.
If you want to be seen as a professional, then you need to behave like one. Without a doubt I practice more than three personal and professional etiquette skills. The main ones are respect, netiquette, and always being on time. For instance, always being respectful to everyone in my personal life and professional life is extremely important to me. Netiquette is also very important to me, we communicate in so many different ways now thanks to technology especially at work. It is important to watch our tone online, and when we communicate through email. When we post online especially on our personal social network profiles it is important to be mindful of who is going to see and read our post. What we post its read by our friends, family and at times even our employer and coworkers. Lastly, being on time is something that I feel like is one of the most important etiquette elements anyone can practice. As a matter of fact, people and employers will judge you if you are on time or late, it says a lot about the type of person and worker you are. When someone is always on time, they are looked at as professional, responsible and dependable. As stated by Lang (2008) the way we behave leaves a lasting impression we want to make sure that impression is a good …show more content…
one.
When it comes to communication I feel like I’m a pretty good communicator, but I do have my weaknesses.
When I get nervous I sometimes go blank and I feel like I cant effectively communicate verbally which is a weakness. I need to learn how to remain calm, put my anxiety aside and focus on effectively communicating. In addition, I feel like many people along with myself sometimes tend to not communicate when something is wrong at work. An example I can use is when I was in the military we worked in groups, and sometimes my partner or partners wouldn’t put in as much effort as I did. Its not that I was afraid to speak up, but like McLeod (2011) mentions, sometimes we don’t speak up because want to avoid a conflict or dispute. My strengths in regards to communication, is I always make sure to make eye contact when I’m speaking with someone. I’m an active listener, and I respond well to criticism, which I feel are important in a professional setting. Being aware of body language and gesture is also a valuable skill to practice when we communicate. I always try to smile and be friendly and helpful when communicating with coworkers or
customers.
As a professional it is important to manage our time efficiently to ensure that we stay on track with all of our tasks. One strategy I like to practice is planning and time management. When I know I have a lot of work to do, I always make sure to set goals for myself to make sure I stay on track. For example, last year I worked at Kmart stores as an online order handler. Picking, packaging, labeling and shipping online orders is a very time consuming job so it was crucial for me to manage my time wisely in order to accomplish my goals. If I set a goal for 100 orders an hour then I needed to ensure I wasted no time in between orders. For short that included things like cutting conversations short with coworkers, and less bathrooms breaks. In order to always be on time I need to make sure to plan. Raising a toddler has defiantly taught me how to manage time better. I know exactly how long it takes me to get both of us ready and out of the door. I prefer to arrive anywhere between 10-15 minutes early to meetings or appointments, staying on schedule really helps me be on time. In regards to my professional goals I have learned that setting clear goals and making a detailed plan of what I need to do to accomplish them really helps. Having a visual, sort of like a timeline of how far I’ve gotten and how far I still need to go are very helpful. I also like to make vision boards with pictures of what my goals are. These charts and visuals in respect to my goals keep me motivated. Unlike other people I don’t like to set specific dates for my goals, but I do like to set a timeframe for them. I try to be realistic with the goals I set, but I do push myself to new limits. Staying organized is also very important to me wen it comes to my professional goals. Keeping my work area organized helps me work more effectively, organizing all paperwork and assignments helps me stay focused. I usually take one day out of the week to reset and reorganize my entire office. All of these things keep me focused, motivated, and excited about my goals. As of right now, I am focused on school and in the future I plan to do some internships before gradating. So far I’m right on track thanks to all the planning and tracking I do.
In closing, I believe that I am a good critical thinker but I want to become better at it. I know this will only happen if I take the time out of my day to practice. I feel like I have great etiquette as well as netiquette, its something that will never change I will always continue to be respectful and take other people’s feelings into consideration. My weakness lies in communication, I need to speak up more and not be afraid of what conflicts might arise from the situation. The only way to fix a problem is to communicate; it is something I will continue to work on. Lastly, I must say that my time management and goal setting strategies are defiantly my strongest. I will continue to practice both of these, they will ensure that I am successful at accomplishing all of my personal and professional goals.
life long learning, never settling, always staying up to date with trainings and personal development. After reviewing a few critical thinking articles I realized that many of the skills they talked about I already practiced. During my service in the military I had the opportunity to work with so many different cultures and ethnicities. I consider myself to be a very open minded person, but my experiences defiantly opened my eyes and made me aware as to why having an open mind is such crucial skill in regards to critical thinking. Sometimes I feel like I devote too much of time practicing reflective thinking. Analyzing situations, and events that take place at work or in my personal life. I feel like reflective thinking is an important critical thinking skill because it allows us to learn from our mistakes and make better decisions in the future.
Critical thinking not only allows us to solve problems, but it steers us to a higher level of thinking. In both my professional life, and my personal life I tend to always ask questions, simple answers just aren’t enough for me. I’m certainly not afraid to ask questions or do research if the answer I receive from someone seems a bit off. When gathering information I always make sure the information I’m receiving and giving is credible, and accurate. Especially at work when I had to give presentations it was very important to me that the information I was sharing was accurate and relevant to my topic. I admit that I am an over analyzer which can sometimes be a bad thing. I always consider more than one perspective before making decisions, and I like to explore alternative methods to everything. Although engaging in daily critical thinking is very healthy and beneficial to personal and professional development, we must be careful not to over do it when it comes to our personal life because it can become obsessive.
Proper professional etiquette goes hand in hand with lifetime employability.
If you want to be seen as a professional, then you need to behave like one. Without a doubt I practice more than three personal and professional etiquette skills. The main ones are respect, netiquette, and always being on time. For instance, always being respectful to everyone in my personal life and professional life is extremely important to me. Netiquette is also very important to me, we communicate in so many different ways now thanks to technology especially at work. It is important to watch our tone online, and when we communicate through email. When we post online especially on our personal social network profiles it is important to be mindful of who is going to see and read our post. What we post its read by our friends, family and at times even our employer and coworkers. Lastly, being on time is something that I feel like is one of the most important etiquette elements anyone can practice. As a matter of fact, people and employers will judge you if you are on time or late, it says a lot about the type of person and worker you are. When someone is always on time, they are looked at as professional, responsible and dependable. As stated by Lang (2008) the way we behave leaves a lasting impression we want to make sure that impression is a good …show more content…
one.
When it comes to communication I feel like I’m a pretty good communicator, but I do have my weaknesses.
When I get nervous I sometimes go blank and I feel like I cant effectively communicate verbally which is a weakness. I need to learn how to remain calm, put my anxiety aside and focus on effectively communicating. In addition, I feel like many people along with myself sometimes tend to not communicate when something is wrong at work. An example I can use is when I was in the military we worked in groups, and sometimes my partner or partners wouldn’t put in as much effort as I did. Its not that I was afraid to speak up, but like McLeod (2011) mentions, sometimes we don’t speak up because want to avoid a conflict or dispute. My strengths in regards to communication, is I always make sure to make eye contact when I’m speaking with someone. I’m an active listener, and I respond well to criticism, which I feel are important in a professional setting. Being aware of body language and gesture is also a valuable skill to practice when we communicate. I always try to smile and be friendly and helpful when communicating with coworkers or
customers.
As a professional it is important to manage our time efficiently to ensure that we stay on track with all of our tasks. One strategy I like to practice is planning and time management. When I know I have a lot of work to do, I always make sure to set goals for myself to make sure I stay on track. For example, last year I worked at Kmart stores as an online order handler. Picking, packaging, labeling and shipping online orders is a very time consuming job so it was crucial for me to manage my time wisely in order to accomplish my goals. If I set a goal for 100 orders an hour then I needed to ensure I wasted no time in between orders. For short that included things like cutting conversations short with coworkers, and less bathrooms breaks. In order to always be on time I need to make sure to plan. Raising a toddler has defiantly taught me how to manage time better. I know exactly how long it takes me to get both of us ready and out of the door. I prefer to arrive anywhere between 10-15 minutes early to meetings or appointments, staying on schedule really helps me be on time. In regards to my professional goals I have learned that setting clear goals and making a detailed plan of what I need to do to accomplish them really helps. Having a visual, sort of like a timeline of how far I’ve gotten and how far I still need to go are very helpful. I also like to make vision boards with pictures of what my goals are. These charts and visuals in respect to my goals keep me motivated. Unlike other people I don’t like to set specific dates for my goals, but I do like to set a timeframe for them. I try to be realistic with the goals I set, but I do push myself to new limits. Staying organized is also very important to me wen it comes to my professional goals. Keeping my work area organized helps me work more effectively, organizing all paperwork and assignments helps me stay focused. I usually take one day out of the week to reset and reorganize my entire office. All of these things keep me focused, motivated, and excited about my goals. As of right now, I am focused on school and in the future I plan to do some internships before gradating. So far I’m right on track thanks to all the planning and tracking I do.
In closing, I believe that I am a good critical thinker but I want to become better at it. I know this will only happen if I take the time out of my day to practice. I feel like I have great etiquette as well as netiquette, its something that will never change I will always continue to be respectful and take other people’s feelings into consideration. My weakness lies in communication, I need to speak up more and not be afraid of what conflicts might arise from the situation. The only way to fix a problem is to communicate; it is something I will continue to work on. Lastly, I must say that my time management and goal setting strategies are defiantly my strongest. I will continue to practice both of these, they will ensure that I am successful at accomplishing all of my personal and professional goals.