Most of us have a great capacity for learning and thinking, but we don't actually use it to the best of our abilities. Developing our critical thinking skills requires a gradual process of hard work over a long period of time (Paul and Elder). Many factors shape the way we think, such as habits, influences and knowledge. Bad habits like stereotyping, resistance to change and the influences of others can affect the way we think critically. But we need to overcome these bad habits and change the way we think, the way we process information and the way we take that information and develop solutions to problems and problems. Many of us probably don't realize how much we use critical thinking in our daily lives. I already know. An example of this is when my then-husband and I bought a used car about five years ago. At the time we were borrowing a vehicle from a family member because my husband had wrecked our car and completely totaled it. It was the middle of summer and the truck we were borrowing from my father-in-law didn't have air conditioning. The truck also came with a manual shifter which, although I am capable of driving, I prefer not to if I don't have to. At the time, we didn't have a lot of money to invest in a vehicle, so we decided the best thing to do would be to buy a used vehicle. Most dealers wanted more for their used cars than we were looking to pay, so a friend suggested we check Craig's List, which we did. There weren't many good options, but we finally came across a reasonably priced Ford Explorer. My husband contacted the seller and set up a day for us to go look at the car which was in Durham, about an hour and a half drive away. By the time we arrived to see the Explorer, I was hot and just plain sick from the heat. I don't know much about cars, so when my husband asked me what I thought, I told him it was all up to him because he knew more about cars than I did. We decided to purchase the vehicle without having it checked by a mechanic and took it home that day. Shortly after that we started having problems and once the problems started they kept coming. According to Jonathan Chan in his Tutorial C01: What is critical thinking and why is it important?, “a critical thinker is able to deduce consequences from what he knows, and he knows how to use information to solve problems and seek consequences. relevant sources of information for information” (Chan). We made a rash decision based on our irritation with the situation, without thinking rationally about the situation.