We Assume A Lot More Than We Should

Humans make a lot of assumptions about the world around them. We assume tomorrow will be mostly like today; you don’t expect to go to sleep and wake up on a world with pink skies, for instance. There are deep assumptions that change will happen slowly, if it does at all. That’s why people take out thirty year mortgages, and make plans to retire forty years down the road.

Naturally, if a tornado or earthquake happens where you live, you are served a disturbing reminder that life is a lot less stable than you’d hope or like it to be. Mother nature seems much less in love with maintaining your status quo than you are! In reality, your physical environment is pretty shaky and unreliable. Even your assumptions about the orderly flow of the seasons is pretty murky in reality.

How about you inter-personal relations? You’d like to assume your family will be there for you, right? Ditto friends! Tell me honestly, how’s that working in your life? Been a serious amount of upheaval, hasn’t there? People don’t seem to live up to your expectations much. You assume things that prove to be mostly wishful thinking! Don’t cry, it happens to all of us.

Even worse than your faulty assumptions regarding friends, you have assumptions about yourself that are likely false. You assume you’d act like a decent, brave person, who’d stand by friends. In reality, you’d be lucky to not pee yourself and run away, if presented with a dire event. Most personal assumptions are simple wishful thinking. If you haven’t thought deeply about who you are, and what you believe, you’re kidding yourself a lot. You’re assuming things. Mostly that means you’re hoping, and not very wisely either!

Jack