To live is to act. To act is to decide. Everyday work and life are an endless sequence of decisions. Some of the decisions are small and inconsequential, and some are large and life-determining. When your patterns of decision-making are rational, you live a rational life. When your patterns are irrational, you live an irrational life. Rational decisions maximize the quality of your life and your chances of happiness, successful living, and fulfillment. Critical thinking improves your decision-making abilities by raising your patterns of decision-making to the level of conscious and deliberate choice. Critical thinking, when deeply understood, enables you to take control of the thinking you are doing in every part of your life. It enables you to solve problems more effectively, make better decisions, as well as recognize pathological and manipulative thinking.