Ruled in everything we do badly (7)
I believe the answer is:
allowed
'ruled' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both related to thinking as well as being past participle verbs.
Maybe there's a link between them I don't understand?
'everything we do badly' is the wordplay.
'everything' becomes 'all' (all things).
'badly' indicates an anagram.
'we'+'do'='wedo'
'wedo' is an anagram of 'owed'.
'all'+'owed'='ALLOWED'
'in' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for allowed that I've seen before include "Gave permission" , "Permitted and granted" , "Acknowledged" , "Given permission" , "Legitimate" .)