Learn to think for yourself

One of the biggest problems facing America today is that not enough people think for themselves. Something is said on social media and too many people accept it as truth. They then share it with their friends and followers, and soon it becomes viral without anyone ever checking to see if it true or not. It then becomes a "truth" simply because so many believe it to be so.

Too many people let the news media think for them as well. A person's favorite news reporter gives a story and people believe that it is true. They don't bother checking the story. They make decisions based on 30-second sound bites that come through their televisions.  Every news story is spun to reflect the bias of the news reporter and/or the ownership of the particular media. This is true whether you watch CNN, MSNBC, Fox, or any of the mainstream media.

Not only do they spin the news to fit their personal biases, they determine which stories you will be allowed to hear. In the 21st century the media doesn't report the news; they make the news. Out of the thousands of things they could report on each day, they select a handful of stories to influence your opinion on matters they consider important. I would encourage anyone to read Breaking The News: How the Media Undermine American Democracy by James Fallows. A the time he wrote this book he was the editor of U. S. News and World Report. As a journalist, he understood how the system worked, and he was convinced today's news reporters do not seek to inform the public as much as they want to influence the public to their point of view. I found the book explained exactly why the public today mistrusts the news media so much. I can tell you that I used to watch a lot of news programs, but today I watch very little, and I question much of what is reported.

Being able to think for yourself is especially important as we continue into this election cycle. We will hear every night from the political pundits who will tell us that one candidate or another is leading in the polls or that one candidate cannot possibly win the election. As they repeat their mantra over and over some people will assume it's true. Don't be so sure. Fallows was especially critical of these political reporters. He said they can be consistently wrong and never held accountable. As an example he pointed to the many political reporters who kept saying that Bill Clinton's campaign was finished and he could not win the election. Of course, he did. The same thing happened in the last election as many of the same pundits who reported the demise of Clinton's campaign kept insisting that Trump could not possibly win the past election. Fallows writes, "For pundits there is no financial or professional penalty for being consistently wrong."

Of course, politics is not the only area in which you need to think for yourself. In many areas of life the majority is often wrong. People go into debt thinking this is the only way they can get the things they want without ever stopping to think that debt will prevent them from financial independence. Just because your broke brother-in-law buys a new car every five years and finances it for seven years doesn't mean that's the smart thing to do.

Many people reject Christianity and biblical teaching without ever studying it themselves. Some professor told them the Bible was full of myths so they go around telling others the Bible is full of myths without ever taking the time to determine if that's true. Someone else tells them there is no God so they believe there is no God without studying the matter for themselves.

I could continue to list other areas in our lives we need to learn to think for ourselves: marriage, the raise we raise our children, career choices, etc. Remember, it's your life. No one else can live it for you nor should you let anyone tell you how to live it or how to think about the things that are most important to a successful life. Learn to think for yourself and you will find your life will become much more rewarding.

Choose carefully who you listen to

There are many voices calling out to us each day. Family members, friends, co-workers, the news media, advertising, clients, authors of the books we read, celebrities, and persons on social media are just some of the people every day trying to influence our thinking and actions. It can become overwhelming at times, and to make it easier we might choose to focus in on just a handful of influencers. The problem then becomes which influencers will we listen to?

One of the skills many have lost is the ability to do critical thinking. Many people today are not deep thinkers. They allow others to do their thinking for them. They watch the news on television and let the talking heads tell then what to think about the issues of the day. It doesn't matter whether your favorite source of news is mainstream media or one of the cable news organizations. They all tell you what they want you to believe the news of the day is and how you should feel about it. As a result, we have been conditioned to think in short time-bites and programmed to believe what we are being told is all we need to know about the issue. Unfortunately, understanding the story takes longer than a 2-3 minute summary of the story, and if you watch different broadcasts you will quickly learn that the same story can be spun in numerous ways. Liberal news outlets will have one spin; conservative outlets will have a completely different spin; the truth may well lie somewhere in the middle, and it's out job to try to discover that.

We've been given the ability to think for ourselves, to form our own opinions. Those opinions will be shaped by the information we take in. That is why it is important that we watch  who we allow to inform us about events of the day. If your broke brother-in-law wants to give you financial advice, don't listen. Don't take relationship advice from someone who's been married four times. When someone in the media talks about a news item, discern his or her agenda before accepting it as true. Most will have an agenda.

Our worldview will be shaped by the voices we listen to. You may not think you have a worldview, but we all do. Once we form our worldview, that worldview will form us. We will adapt to the worldview we have created. Anything we hear that is contrary to that worldview will be initially rejected. Our actions will be shaped by that worldview. It's important that we take time to identify our worldview and see how it impacts our lives.

Our lives are impacted so much by the information that we accept as true. It's important to choose carefully who we listen to.

Reducing the stress in your life

Before looking at how we can reduce stress in our lives, let's first recognize that some stress is good. Stress is what gets us out of bed in the morning to go to work. When we feel stressed about our finances that can be the catalyst to force us to begin making better financial decisions. The same is true with our health. When stress causes us to make positive changes in our lives and doesn't last too long, that's a good thing. Good stress is called eustress, and we need a certain measure of that in our lives to help us function properly.

However, much of the stress in our lives is not positive. That negative stress can lead to physical and emotional problems and can greatly limit our ability to function if not addressed. This kind of stress comes when we feel annoyed, threatened, frightened, worried, angered, challenged or frustrated. Much of our stress comes from our own minds. That's what makes dealing with stress so difficult: much of it can't be acted upon because they only exist in our minds. It's the way we think about things that brings about the stress.

Obviously, in a blog post we can't cover everything we can do to reduce the stress in our lives. The best book I have in my library that addresses stress is Norman Wright's book Success over Stress: 12 Ways to Take Back Your Life. I will give you some tips to get you started.

Some say the best way to reduce stress in your life is to turn off the evening news. I think there's a lot of truth in that! The media is focused on reporting the negative events of the day. Just think...there are literally thousands of stories every day they could report on, but they choose the negative ones that fit their particular biases. If you listen to and believe everything they say, you will get stress overload.

There's a principle behind that suggestion though that we do not want to miss. To reduce stress we have to filter what goes into our thinking. Garbage-in, garbage-out is the computer term. If we consistently take in negative information and allow negative thoughts to dominate we will be stressed. We have to be careful about the media we watch, the books we read, the friends we listen to and the things we say to ourselves if we want to reduce stress.

Another important step is to reevaluate how you measure success. A lot of people are stressed over what they perceive to be a lack of success in their lives. Some very successful people believe they don't measure up. They compare themselves to others and wonder why they don't have what other people have in life. You are not Superman or Superwoman. You are the person God created you to be. Embrace that.

Take control of your life. If you want to reduce stress, you must control your calendar, your computer, your time, your phone. You may have obligations to an employer in how you use your time and these other items, but you do not have to be a slave to them. It's OK to not answer the phone when you are having family dinner. Voice mail will take care of that. It's OK to not respond to something on social media when you read something you disagree with. It's OK to just check email a couple of times a day. If you do not take control of your life, others will, and they will not have the same priorities for your life that you do.

Learn to say no. It's an easy word to pronounce, and it is a complete sentence. You are seldom under any obligation to explain your no to anyone. You may want to stand in front of a mirror each morning and practice saying no. You'll be surprised at how much stress learning that one word will eliminate.

Reducing stress in our lives is a choice each of us must make if we want to live healthier, more productive lives. It can be done if we choose to do so.

Thinking for yourself

Someone commented recently that the problem today isn't that Johnny can't read; it's that Johnny doesn't know how to think. Unfortunately, this isn't limited to young people leaving school. We see it throughout our society. People are unable to think for themselves, to gather information and make informed decisions without having to have some talking head on TV telling them what to believe.

One of the most entertaining features (at least, to me) on Jay Leno's Tonight show was his man-on-the-street interviews. He would stop people and ask them questions about current events. Few of the people he asked answered correctly. He would show them pictures of well-known leaders in the country, and they often didn't know who they were. Of course, they could name all the Kardashians or pop stars, but they were completely unaware of the people or issues who had the greatest impact on their lives.

During recent protests people were asked why they were protesting. Many of them didn't know. They were told to show up, probably paid money to be there, and began yelling whatever script they were given. Others were given quotes that were supposedly made by certain politicians and asked their opinion. They readily agreed with the quote. Only then were they told the quote came from a politician they didn't support.

We turn on the news each night to hear the stations version of various stories. Many who watch accept these versions as truth without ever confirming the information for themselves. We hear a lot about fake news today, and much of it is true. Only, fake news isn't new at all. James Fallows is a former editor of the U. S. News and World Report and writes for numerous major news magazines. For two years he was the chief speech writer for President Jimmy Carter. He has spent a lifetime in the media.

In 1997 he wrote Breaking The News: How the Media Undermine American Democracy. He explained how the media doesn't report the news; it makes the news. It does so by deciding which, of all the possible stories it could cover, it would focus on and how the story would be spun. Fallows complains that rather than doing detailed stories on important topics, the media spends a few minutes on each story presenting speakers who give the story the right amount of spin. As he writes, "Journalists] inescapably change the reality of whatever they are observing by whether and how they choose to write about it." It is a fascinating book because it comes from one on the inside who has been a major player in the media.

But, for many people, what they hear in a 30-second soundbite is all they know about an event and assume the reporter must be correct in his or her assessment. That becomes their perspective as well. So we have people going around parroting whatever their favorite news person says or writes without spending one minute thinking about the matter for themselves.

This is one reason our nation is in the trouble it's in. We let other people, who have agendas, do our thinking for us. God gave us a mind. Let's use it! Rather than automatically taking the perspective of our political party or the news person we watch or what someone tells us we ought to believe, let's begin to think for ourselves. Let's begin to form our own opinions based upon actual facts.

I wonder what our nation would look like if people chose to think for themselves. I would really like to know.