Do you know what either/or thinking is? Either/or thinking, or black and white thinking as it is sometimes called, is a very dangerous thing, and it is basically just what it sounds like.

Either/or thinkers don't see shades of gray. They want easy answers and they like to keep it simple. So they see life in terms of winners and losers, good guys and bad guys, success or failure, right and wrong. They fail to realize that right and wrong depend on time, place, culture and purpose, among other things. 

They don't see that no one is all good or all bad, or that success and failure depend on how you define them, as do winning and losing. Neither do they see the degrees of difference that stretch between most opposites, because if they did, it would require more complex thinking skills and the ability to deal with subtle differences. 

Now, I mean it when I say they don't see these things. They build blind spots, or scotomas, to this information, because it threatens their either/or belief system, and it doesn't get through.  You can see evidence of this every day, in the local, national and international news stories. Just check today's newspaper or online news services.

Do you ever catch yourself doing either/or thinking? Most of us do, from time to time.

It's a dangerous habit, but one you can learn to break, if you choose to. Self-awareness is the first step. A strong desire to change and grow will help you open up your thinking to all the possibilities and keep you from getting stuck in a black and white world.