Tuesday, August 15, 2006

THE ADVERSE POWER OF ASSUMPTIONS

Assumptions are part of the normal thinking process of human beings. According to what we have already stored in our minds, our brains develop pathways that help us deal with known and unknown situations, anticipating outcomes based on the data that is known to us. However, I see how assumptions are overly used on a daily basis. Sometimes, assumptions kill our curiosity, our intentions, our drive. When we are in front of someone we want to meet, but we do not want to take the first step in introducing ourselves, our assumptions that the person might not be interested, or that is too busy, or will not correspond to our approach can stop us from moving forward and acting on our intention. When we over analyze and portray all the "ifs" and "thens" of simple and complex situations in our minds without even engaging in taking the necessary steps to find out for ourselves, we have missed on the opportunity to confirm or not our suspicions and learn from the process. Assumptions are normal and necessary: they might prevent us from taking life threatening risks, from getting hurt and feeling pain.
But often times assumptions kill our intention and can jeopardize our learning process and our growth, as they limit our experiences to the known and the believed known outcomes. So even when you most likely assume right, do not let assumptions make you anticipate the answers and stop you from asking the questions and embarking in the journey.