How Successful People Think: Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life pdfdrive com

1. Reflective Thinking Gives You True Perspective
When our children were young and still lived at home, we used to take them
on wonderful vacations every year. When we got home, they always knew that I
was going to ask them two questions: “What did you like best?” and “What did
you learn?” It didn’t matter whether we went to Walt Disney World or
Washington, D.C.
I always asked those questions. Why? Because I wanted them to reflect on
their experiences. Children don’t naturally grasp the value (or cost) of an
experience unless prompted. They take things for granted. I wanted my children
to appreciate our trips and to learn from them. When you reflect, you are able to
put an experience into perspective. You are able to evaluate its timing. And you
are able to gain a new appreciation for things that before went unnoticed. Most
people are able to recognize the sacrifices of their parents or other people only
when they become parents themselves. That’s the kind of perspective that comes
with reflection.

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2. Reflective Thinking Gives Emotional Integrity toYour Thought Life
Few people have good perspective in the heat of an emotional moment. Most
individuals who enjoy the thrill of an experience try to go back and recapture it
without first trying to evaluate it. (It’s one of the reasons our culture produces so
many thrill seekers.) Likewise, those who survive a traumatic experience usually
avoid similar situations at all costs, which sometimes ties them into emotional
knots.
Reflective thinking enables you to distance yourself from the intense emotions
of particularly good or bad experiences and see them with fresh eyes. You can
see the thrills of the past in the light of emotional maturity and examine tragedies
in the light of truth and logic. That process can help a person to stop carrying
around a bunch of negative emotional baggage.
President George Washington observed, “We ought not to look back unless it
is to derive useful lessons from past errors, and for the purpose of profiting by
dearly bought experience.” Any feeling that can stand up to the light of truth and
can be sustained over time has emotional integrity and is therefore worthy of
your mind and heart.

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