Now You're Thinking!: Change Your Thinking...Revolutionize Your Career...Transform Your Life

by Stewart Emery

  Summary

  Adopting a new way of thinking will change your life by helping you to see opportunities more clearly, sort through ambiguity more effectively, and make better decisions. Start practicing your new way of thinking today and enjoy greater clarity, confidence, success, and satisfaction. As you change your thinking, you will transform your life.

  How can you actually do this? Well, it’s pretty much the same sort of behavior shift you’d make when committing to a nutrition or exercise regime. You keep the vision of the “new and improved” you in mind every day, as you keep active toward that goal. So here we go with the tips, tools, and techniques cliff notes:

  • Break yourself from the patterns of your past by looking each day at the lives of those around you and in the media, for examples of those who exhibit highly effective thinking—not just the Nobel Prize winners, but those who excel at whatever they set out to do.

  • Keep track of your progress in a journal, diary, or a computer file. You’ll soon know more and more about you and your thinking style, or styles. Are you improving, stretching yourself to use styles you formerly did not? Are you meeting challenges with more confidence? Are you better prepared for anything? The most effective people in the world develop their own measurement system to track their daily progress. Think of this as having “mini” goals. The strategy is to think-act-measure-correct-improve. This might seem like a lot of work—and it is, at first. However, you will immediately start being more comfortable in your own skin knowing you are becoming the best you can be.

  • Keep your mind active. Test yourself with exercises or quizzes. There are numerous thinking challenges on the Internet and, if you look with your now-more-enlightened mind, in the real world around you. How can you be more innovative at work? Is there a better way to approach a particular problem in a more timely or open-minded way? You might find yourself coming up with new revenue streams at work or better ways to balance your personal and professional life. You might fix your finances. And, research indicates that those with active minds live fuller and richer lives the older they get.

  • Reward yourself when you discover you are using thinking powers you may have never thought you had. You can be your own best coach or cheerleader once you start measuring improvement. It’s about a better life, so treat yourself right. You will have earned it!

  Go forth and matter!

  Appendix A. Characters

  Major Kevin Jarrard, Commanding Officer, Company L, 3rd Battalion, 23rd Marines. Kevin, Kelly, Caleb, Hannah, Rachel, Ethan at Riverside Military Academy where Kevin is currently serving as the Commandant of Cadets.

  Source: Kevin Jarrard

  Captain John Nadeau, a Navy reservist in his sixties, a professor at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. Dr. John Nadeau was a top hypertension specialist at Vanderbilt on his second tour of duty as a battlefield surgeon with the U.S. Marine Corps in Haditha, Iraq.

  Source: Marines—Mark Lamelza

  Lieutenant Colonel David G. Bellon, Commanding Officer, 3rd Battalion, 23rd Marines, 4th Marine Division. He is now a colonel in the reserves having deployed three times to Iraq and once to Afghanistan. He now lives in St. Louis, Missouri, with his wife and kids and works in international trade.

  Source: David Bellon

  Major Mark A. Lamelza, Operations Officer, 3rd Battalion, 23rd Marines, 4th Marine Division. Mark Lamelza is pictured with his wife Jennifer and daughter Jade on vacation in Naples, Florida. Mark and his family live in Nashville, Tennessee. Mark works for the professional services organization Deloitte as an Information Technology Manager. Mark is still in the reserves and he now commands 3rd Battalion, 23rd Marines as a Lieutenant Colonel.

  Source: Marines—Mark Lamelza

  Major Kevin E. Clark, Executive Officer, who shared an office with Mark Lamelza.

  Major Jake Falcone, Battalion Communications Officer, facilitated clearance for Amenah and her mother to enter the United States through the State Department and Department of Homeland Security. Jake Falcone is pictured with his wife Clare and children Katherine and Joseph. Jake works for CACI as a government contractor in the Washington, D.C., area. Jake is still serving in the Marine Reserves as a Major aboard Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia.

  Source: Jake Falcone

  Colonel H. Stacy Clardy III, now a Brigadier General, came to Haditha for a visit. Kevin, with Lieutenant Colonel Bellon’s permission, told Colonel Clardy what he was up to and said, “Sir, if this all lines up, would you provide us a helicopter?” Though skeptical, the colonel said that if everything else came together that the regiment would provide a helicoptor.

  Sergeant Bryan C. Velasquez, a Company Lima squad leader, 3rd Battalion, 23rd Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 5, who discovered Amenah on a routine patrol through the city. She appeared to be a normal little girl, except for her blue lips and fingers.

  Amenah al-Bayati, two-year-old Haditha girl.

  Source: Marines—Mark Lamelza

  Alaa Thabit Fatah, father. “Perhaps he was involved in the insurgency, perhaps he wasn’t,” Major Jarrard said. “It’s difficult to tell from the reports we have. But as far as I’m concerned, he’s my friend.”

  Source: Marines—Mark Lamelza

  Maha Muhammad Bandar, mother (41-year-old).

  Source: Marines—Mark Lamelza

  Sheik Said Flayah Othman, tribal chief who gave the okay; from the al-Jughayfi tribe.

  Dr. Karla Christian, M.D., pediatric heart surgeon and an associate professor of cardiology at Vanderbilt. (Amenah returned to Haditha March 7 after undergoing open heart surgery at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.)

  Dr. Thomas Doyle, M.D., a pediatric cardiologist at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt University.

  Kevin Churchwell, M.D., the CEO of the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt University.

  Samir Sumaidaie, Iraqi ambassador to the United States, also from Haditha.

  Janet Jarrard, Major Kevin Jarrard’s aunt, who helped line up details to get the mother and daughter to the States. She and Kelly Jarrard, Kevin’s wife, helped raise money. She is semiretired and lives in Franklin, Tennessee, where she spends most of her time with her two young grandsons. Chief among her charitable endeavors is the John Jarrard Foundation, established in 2001 to honor her late husband, which has raised over $800,000 for various charitable organizations in his home state of Georgia.

  Source: Janet Jarrard

  Jonathan Malloch, Jonathan not only had a medical background, an EMT background, and had worked for FEMA, but he also did emergency medical management whenever he was called on to do it. He had extensive military connections and a military background. He orchestrated the extraction team.

  Lisa Van Wye, R.N., Janet Jarrard’s friend, a nurse in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Janet asked Lisa to fly with the extraction team to Jordan because they had to have a woman on the team escorting Amenah and her mom.

  Deanna Dolan, with World Relief, which provided an Arabic interpreter, cultural orientation, and helped with planning culturally appropriate food.

  Source: Deanna Dolan

  Pastor Steve and Sarah Berger, Grace Chapel Church in Lieper’s Fork, Tennessee. They let Amenah and her mother, as well as Deanna Dolan and the interpreter, stay at their home. Steve and Sarah continue their work at Grace Chapel. Since their son, Josiah, went to Heaven in August 2009, they have written a book and have committed themselves to teaching people how to have a biblical perspective when a loved one passes on. They can be reached through www.gracechapel.net and http://haveheart.net.

  Source: Deanna Dolan

  Robin Smith, a family friend and an executive with the BB&T Bank in Gainesville, Georgia, Kevin Jarrard’s hometown.

  Glenn Susskind, medic, member of the extraction team.

  Gary White, member of the extraction team.

  Blackwater Worldwide, now known as Xe Services LLC, is a private
military company founded as Blackwater USA in 1997 by Erik Prince, a former Navy Seal with inherited wealth, and Al Clark. Blackwater was often contracted to guard U.S. diplomats, an activity that led to the company becoming embroiled in controversy, particularly for its activities in Iraq. In October 2007, Blackwater USA was renamed Blackwater Worldwide. It announced on February 13, 2009, that it would operate under the new name “Xe.” In a memo sent to employees, President Gary Jackson wrote that the new name “reflects the change in company focus away from the business of providing private security.” The company was purchased on December 17, 2010, by USTC Holdings, an investment group.

  Travel note: Commercial flights were paid for by donations except a Sikorsy CH-53 helicopter to take the family and Kevin to the Jordan border and the family’s return to Al Asad Airbase in Al Anbar Province, where they boarded an MV-22 Osprey for the final leg of the voyage to Haditha.

  Appendix B. Cognitive Biases: Common Mental Mind Traps

  Mind traps are like optical illusions that fool you into thinking you’re right when you’re not. It is important to get a proper introduction to these mental mistakes because you will run into them as you practice a new way of thinking. Social scientists have identified many different kinds of mental mistakes associated with the way human beings process information. The pioneering work of Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman, culminating in Kahneman being awarded the Nobel Prize in 2002 for economic sciences, sheds light on the human tendency to make systematic errors in certain situations.

  Basically, humans use simple rules, heuristics, to make judgments. Although heuristics are quite useful, they operate like shortcuts that save us time, but they also create systematic errors. A few of the more prevalent ones are described here. They are grouped so that you can see which of the five steps of critical thinking they are most likely to impact.

  Grabbing Glory and Pushing Blame (Step 2: Recognize Assumptions)

  • A fundamental attribution error is an error in attributing cause. If someone makes a mistake, there is a tendency to attribute the mistake to the individual’s personality rather than the situation. For example, if someone makes a mistake at work, the cause will more likely be attributed to a personal shortcoming than work overload or time pressure. Not really fair, is it? This trap leads to faulty assumptions and poorly defined problems that skew a situation in the wrong direction from the start. To minimize this error, analyze the situation by asking questions about the environment and its impact.

  • Self-serving bias is the tendency to make assumptions about what is fair or right in a way that favors our own self-interest. For example, if you ask four people how much (what percentage) they contributed to a project, the number will exceed 100 percent. We tend to take more than our fair share of credit. When information is ambiguous, we tend to interpret it in a way that benefits our self-interest. To minimize this error, pay particular attention to the contributions of others, and recognize that you might be underestimating their time and value, relative to your own. An open-minded style will help you become more aware of the contributions of others.

  Asking the Wrong Questions (Step 3: Evaluate Information)

  • Confirmation bias is the tendency to search for information that confirms your beliefs. If you are responsible for making important decisions, underline this mind trap and keep it squarely in your view because this trap snaps on a regular basis and you don’t want to make a crucial decision with lopsided information. To minimize this bias, ask yourself, “Am I being objective?” and actively seek out people who will articulate a contrary view. Look for people with inquisitive and truth-seeking styles who can help you explore all sides of a position.

  • Anchoring is the tendency to give undue weight to the first information you receive. Hammond, Keeney, and Raiffa1 asked people two questions that we invite you to answer:

  • Is the population of Turkey greater than 35 million?

  • What is your best estimate of Turkey’s population?

  They found that information in the first question, specifically the figure 35 million, influenced the answers to the second question. When they used 100 million in the first question, peoples’ estimates to the second question were much larger. The information anchored how they thought about the question. As you can imagine, anchoring is used as a negotiation technique, so be aware of how initial numbers and information can impact the way you evaluate subsequent information.

  • The framing effect occurs when a person’s response changes based on the way the question is framed. Consider the example we mentioned previously: You need surgery and your doctor says to you, “92% of the patients survive surgery.” That sounds positive. Now let’s say the doctor says, “8% of the patients die in surgery.” That doesn’t sound as good, and people are more likely to reject the latter statement. The same odds of survival, but different acceptance due to the way the information is framed. When you gather information, look at the frame because it could unduly influence your decision. You want to focus on the information (e.g., odds of survival), not the way it is framed.

  • Group think occurs when members of a tightly knit group try to minimize conflict and reach consensus without critically testing, analyzing, and evaluating ideas. The Kennedy administration’s decision to invade Cuba (Bay of Pigs) and the George W. Bush administration’s decision to invade Iraq have both been described as examples of group think. The ingredients for group think include an inner circle of advisors who are closely aligned and the absence of someone who holds an alternative viewpoint or plays devil’s advocate. A truth-seeking style is particularly valuable for surfacing the tough, but necessary questions.

  Curious Conclusions (Step 4: Draw Conclusions)

  • Optimism bias is the tendency to overestimate positive outcomes and underestimate negative outcomes. This bias is a double-edged sword because optimism is an admirable quality associated with being resilient, but underestimating risk is dangerous. The best safeguard against this mind trap is good planning. Everyone in “Amenah’s Story” maintained a positive attitude, but their plans were meticulous and they recognized and accepted that a single glitch could stop the project.

  • Planning fallacy is the tendency to underestimate the time, costs, and risks of future actions and, at the same time, overestimate the benefits of those same actions. Think about the last project at work that was late, had cost overruns, and fell short of expectations. It probably didn’t take you long to come up with an example because this mental mistake occurs frequently. To counter this fallacy, leverage timely and analytical thinking styles as you prepare to make a decision.

  • Sunk cost fallacy is also common and occurs when we make a decision in a way that justifies a past decision. It is reminiscent of the catch phrase “throwing good money after bad.” Sunk cost comes from economics where the past investment (of time or money) can’t be recovered and should be irrelevant to the present decision, but research shows that it is not. If you have already invested in a project or relationship, you are likely to hang on and want to make it work because of your past involvement rather than your analysis of the future success. To minimize this bias, you need to do an emotional temperature check and bring feelings (e.g., regret, fear of failure) to the surface, so you can more readily assess their influence. Then, shift your attention to an analysis of the current and future investments required and the likely return on investment.

  Endnote

  1. Hammond, John S., Ralph L. Keeney, and Howard Raiffa. 1998. Smart Choices: A Practical Guide to Making Better Decisions. Harvard Business School.

  Appendix C. Resources

  Congratulations! You have made it to the end of this book and the beginning of a new, or perhaps renewed, approach to improve your thinking, and that is a great accomplishment. This appendix provides suggested readings and additional resources to support your thinking success.

  Online Resources and Social Media