Importance of being a Thinking Adult
How it affects an individual’s beliefs and perception of the world
A person’s early beliefs and values are largely shaped by his upbringing and by the environment he grows up in. The education he receives from his parents, elders as well as in the school system and community, will then determine the kind of person he will ultimately become.
At the same time, the world we live in today has been experiencing a digital explosion over the past 30 years, in particular from the time the internet is invented. The mass and social media have thoroughly invaded our lives, via the various technological devices we own, mobile as well as in the home, in a way undreamed of one generation ago. We can have at our fingertips — literally — access to a vast universe of information, for better or worst.
As one grows into adulthood, our ability to think and analyze grows more acute and we can question some of the peripheral values and convictions that we have accumulated in the past. You have become a thinking adult and you will be able to shape your own beliefs and convictions as you see fit and when you see fit.
How to be a Real Thinking Adult
There are eight key points I feel that are critical to making you a true thinking adult :
- Read and study widely, expand and widen your horizons every day. This is an easy task because the internet explosion has brought a world of information of all kinds to your fingertips, literally. Listen and watch diverse and differing views on any subject you happen to be focussing on at the moment.
- Don’t accept any views at face value — whether they are from your political leader, your elders, or from books, magazine articles or any internet sources. Have a strong belief in yourself to make your judgment, after you have examined all sides of an issue.
- Have total conviction in what you strongly believe in and be prepared to defend it, once you have accepted a certain stand. But be ready to change the conviction though, if and when new data or information become available to alter your current belief and conviction. It is all right to make a u-turn, as it will also demonstrate a level of maturity in you to be bold enough to correct a mistake.
- When there is peer pressure to attempt to direct you to certain beliefs, you will need to have a strong enough personal conviction to stay true to your views, rejecting any external pressure applied by outsiders or groups. Do not succumb easily to the pressure to conform within your community, with your circle of friends and even immediate family, in the matter of personal beliefs.
- Discuss and debate your stand and positions if possible with another thinking rational adult to seek more outside views and opinions. Participate in talks and seminars, live podcasts, etc for example to give your views and to ask probing questions. Usually, there are panels of experts that will then give you new valuable insights and fresh thoughts, to supplement what knowledge you do not already possess.
- View all outsiders as individual human beings that they are — each with a mind of their own. The weaker ones will easily be influenced to change their stands to conform, but not you.
- Travel widely whenever possible, to see the world in a brand new light. Your own visual and sensual experience will be much more valuable than a “static picture in a magazine, or a writing of a thousand words”.
- Finally, it is important to have a questioning mind at all times too…… be a THINKING and a QUESTIONING adult.
How Values and Perceptions are Shaped
The world today is a highly complex and diverse one, with different civilizations and races of different ethnicities dotting the whole planet, living their respective ways of life. Every individual on this planet is heavily molded by the environment surrounding him, within the physical space that he is borne into and grew up in. Many values and beliefs would have been shaped and deeply ingrained into his mind by the time he reached adulthood.
The Chinese have a saying “人之初 性本善”. This translates as “All human being at the time he is born into this world possesses an inherently pure and kind character”.
It is the molding process which follows that makes the person a real, better and more intelligent human.
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