Critical Thinking: Tools for Taking Charge of Your Professional and Personal Life, Second Edition

Preface

The mind is its own place and in itself can make a hell of heaven or a heaven of hell.

—John Milton, Paradise Lost

You are what you think. Whatever you are doing, whatever you feel, whatever you want—all are determined by the quality of your thinking. If your thinking is unrealistic, your thinking will lead to many disappointments. If your thinking is overly pessimistic, it will squeeze what enjoyment can be found in life and keep you from recognizing what should be properly rejoiced.

Test this idea for yourself. Identify the strongest feelings or emotions you tend to experience frequently, and give examples in your life of when you experience these emotions. Then identify the thinking correlated with those examples. For example, if you ...