Casey walked determinedly through my office door and sat down abruptly in the padded chair.

“You were right!” she exclaimed with a triumphant look on her face, “It’s all about interpretation!

"I have the six steps of critical thinking pasted on my fridge but it really comes down to how you make sense of things- interpretation. That course you taught me- it has taken me some time to figure things out, but if you don’t get the interpretation right you don’t get the other steps right, either.”

 

I was surprised to see her. I wasn’t sure that she would make it... I had taught Casey several years ago. She was a spirited youth. She had been loud and boisterous in class, often disrupting her classmates. Constantly in stages of stress, she epitomized the meaning of “Drama Queen.” She had slept with her landlord and then was evicted when his girlfriend had found out. She had slept with her boss and was fired when his wife found out. She once crashed her car on an icy road and was caught driving without insurance or a license. Casey had her fair share of events marked by the inability to emotionally regulate her behaviours. She had finally figured out one of the first steps to help manage her outcomes.

We often skip the first step in the critical thinking process because we think we understand the issues. We quickly make sense of things without examining the other possibilities or all the available pertinent data.

I was hiking in Chilliwack the other weekend. My girlfriend had picked a hike that was rated difficult. I have spent years hiking and was prepared for any eventuality. I had packed emergency gear, first aid kit, flares, warm clothes and the like. What I missed was the interpretation of difficult. Difficult is an ambiguous term- capable of having one or more precise but different meanings. I didn’t need my ropes or my climbing equipment- as difficult may mean in the Rockies. This difficult meant straight-up hiking for 4000 feet. Difficult in another setting may mean something completely different. You see, it’s all how you interpret the information.

The quote by Anais Nin, “We see things as we are, not as they are,” is very applicable.

I have hiked further, longer, higher, more technical, and in more adverse weather conditions; seen through my eyes, difficult in Chilliwack did not seem as difficult in the Rockies. Hiking in wet conditions up a trail with little slope crossing all the while being attacked by swarms of relentless mosquitoes was difficult—I had to redefine my interpretation. If I had spent more time researching the data, talking to the locals, watching the weather- doing a more thorough interpretation-my experience would have been better managed.

Better interpretation = Better outcome.

Casey was now working in a factory. Life has settled down for her. Once she was able to focus first on interpretation she was able to focus on self-regulation. We can measure our effectiveness, but we first have to start at the beginning. It’s all about interpretation.