Think Well & Prosper: A Critical Thinking Guide

This award-winning book was researched and written by college educator Steve Bareham. Its evolutionary ideas and practical processes have benefited people worldwide for the past 15 years.

Readers learn precisely what to do to think effectively. This includes proper cognitive sequencing to attend to decoding, interpretation, level 6 questioning, analysis, reasoning, inferencing, logic, and synthesis. People who understand the sequence perform better in lives and careers, they are able to make better decisions/judgments, and they can solve problems more confidently.

There are also strategies to help people to be more creative and to spot and disarm psychological landmines that often derail good thinking. There is even a strategic life planning process that gives readers a well-defined goal-oriented life and career path to follow – hugely important to everyone, but particularly to young people.

The focus of the Critical Thinking Guide is practical, not theoretical; its concise sections deliver dozens of understandable high-performance thinking tools for people wanting the most from life.

Think Well & Prosper reveals that most people tend to move too quickly to thinking outcomes: decisions, plans, conclusions, and judgments. The trouble is, these are, or should be, the end stages of thinking, so when we do them too soon, important pieces of the thinking process are skipped and we tend to make mistakes.

The book suggests that thinking skills have little to do with intelligence. Like any skill, thinking can be learned, practiced, and improved. Just as physical conditioning requires a system, so does high performance thinking. Critical thinking doesn't come naturally to anyone.

The author received the NISOD award for teaching and leadership excellence at North American institutions of higher education based on his research and teaching in the area of critical thinking. (NISOD: National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development).
Contents cover:
the thought process works when it's well managed (and when it's not)
improved understanding of our thinking sequence/process brings about much improved outcomes that benefit us in all walks of life
to systematically audit your thinking to ensure that none of the components of higher order thinking are overlooked and that exploration of the parts is comprehensive and done conscientiously to produce detailed analysis, coherent synthesis, defensible reasoning, logical inference, creativity, sound judgment, constructiveness, and connectiveness
to employ personal candor about psychological landmines that often derail us
to ask better questions; our brains are questioning machines, but we often ask questions subconsciously and without critical analysis of their depth or quality. You'll learn that there are six levels to question sophistication so you can ask better questions routinely. Einstein said questioning skills were the secret to his success.
memory works and how to make yours better to make better plans, decisions, and judgments (and do these better AFTER employing the thinking "parts" in the right sequence
to create a strategic life plan using a process similar to that employed by successful corporations (works for life, too!)
to be more persuasive by expanding your persuasion arsenal with 21 specific tactics and strategies (this is hugely beneficial)
organizational patterns can improve your communication power
Thinking better avoids frustration and feelings of being overwhelmed in a complex world. Many people believe that they face difficulties because they lack information. While more information may be needed, that can lead to confusion and analysis paralysis. Thinking critically enables us to make better use of information because we know how to reason. to ask the right questions, and how to draw accurate inferences from the information we do have.