Linda Elder - 30 Days to Better Thinking and Better Living Through Critical Thinking: A Guide for Improving Every Aspect of Your Life, Revised and Expanded

A Guide for Improving Every Aspect of Your Life, Revised and Expanded

Dr. Linda Elder and Dr. Richard Paul

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Printed in the United States of America

First Printing: September 2012

ISBN-10: 0-13-309256-9
ISBN-13: 978-0-13-309256-1

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Additional books written by Richard Paul and Linda Elder:

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

Critical Thinking: Tools for Taking Charge of Your Learning and Your Life, 3rd edition

Critical Thinking: Learn the Tools the Best Thinkers Use

The Thinkers Guide series written by Richard Paul and Linda Elder titles includes:

Critical Thinking: Concepts and Tools

Analytic Thinking: How to Take Thinking Apart and What to Look for When You Do

How to Detect Media Bias and Propaganda in National and World News

Fallacies: The Art of Mental Trickery and Manipulation

Taking Charge of the Human Mind

How to Read a Paragraph: The Art of Close Reading

How to Write a Paragraph: The Art of Substantive Writing

Understanding the Foundations of Ethical Reasoning

The Art of Asking Essential Questions

Also written by Richard Paul:

Critical Thinking: How to Survive in a Rapidly Changing World

In their book, 30 Days to Better Thinking and Better Living Through Critical Thinking, Dr. Linda Elder and Dr. Richard Paul provide nothing less than a psychological GPS system for mental clarity. If youre serious about living according to your true intentions, then you must develop a capacity for critically thinking about what you think. At first blush, thinking about what you think may sound like a Zen Koandont be intimidated. With practical, incremental guidelines for challenging destructive, self-deceptive habits, beliefs, and vague thinking, you will be experiencing your world in vivid, HD clarity in just 30 days. If youve ever dreamt about being more effective, more balanced, and more content with life, follow this step-by-step program. Its amazing!

Dr. Joe Luciani, Bestselling Author of Self-Coaching:
The Powerful Program to Beat Anxiety and Depression

It is ironic and in many ways tragic that you can go through 12 years of undergraduate education, 4 years of college, and 46 years of graduate school, and still never learn how to think. Educators mouth the words critical thinking, but in my 35 years as a college professor, writer, and public intellectual, I have found that almost no one knows how to think. They may know what to think if they are good at memorization, but the all important skill of learning how to think is still a lost art. This makes the work of Dr. Linda Elder and Dr. Richard Paul vital to the progress of our democratic society, and 30Days to Better Thinking and Better Living Through Critical Thinking is their best guide yet on teaching people how to think, not just about big ideas, but about everything in life. Buy this book, change your life, and in the process make the world a safer and saner place to live.

Dr. Michael Shermer, Publisher of Skeptic magazine;
Author of Why People Believe Weird Things

One of the qualities that sets us apart from thinking creatures of other species is our abilityif we choose to use itto think about our thinking. My husband, the pioneering psychologist, humanist, and great thinker: Albert Ellis, Ph.D., would remind people of that fact, tirelessly and constantly! In this substantial, clear, and easy-to-read book by Dr. Linda Elder and Dr. Richard Paul... readers are offered stimulating descriptions, definitions, principles, and suggestions for understanding and using thinking in effective ways in order to experience a better quality of life. The earnest dedication of the authors to contributing impactful ideasand to encouraging their readers to allow themselves to experience growth in their lives through making choices to think and act in beneficial waysis felt strongly throughout the whole book. That in itself is inspiring to read and feel. The topic is presented through combining the premises and ideas of the authors with guidelines which allow us to identify problematic flaws in thinking in order that we may prevent such flaws, along with action strategiesindeed fine exercise for the mind and the brain. Additionally it is uplifting to read the urging of the authors to make the world we live in a more kind and healthy place. Lets do itby maximizing the benefits to ourselves, to others, and to society, which can flourish as a result of applying the tools which allow us to think and act in healthy ways.

Dr. Debbie Joffe Ellis, Psychologist; Author; Presenter

... I am sure that, if the 30-day plan outlined in Dr. Linda Elder and Dr. Richard Pauls book is followed consistently, it truly will improve the thinking and the lives of its readers. The 30-day regimen starts with the chapter Discover Your Ignorance and moves along through chapters such as Empathize with Others, Clarify Your Thinking, Be Reasonable, and Ask Deep Questions. It is clearly inspired by Socrates, by his example of following the classical injunction Know Thyself, questioning the conventional wisdom of himself and his fellow Athenians. Moreover, it is important that this critical thinking regimen is not merely a matter of acquiring skills, but is a deeply ethical endeavor. That is made crystal clear in chapters such as Be Fair, Not Selfish and (one of my favorites) Dont Be Righteous: Show Mercy. This small, easily readable book contains wisdom hard won during the two authors dedicated and decades-long efforts to develop and communicate their conception of critical thinking, a conception that has rightly been very influential.

Dr. Frank Fair, Sam Houston State University, Managing Editor
of INQUIRY: Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines

30 Days is a manifesto for approaching life and relationships assertively, for thinking clearly and fairly, and for uncovering your own biases and vulnerabilities to the persuasive tactics of others. Stop being an underdog or a domineering top dog and read