I do not know about you, but my most significant challenges in life come from assumptions. When I am right, I can be ahead of the game and look like a psychic. On the other hand, mistaken assumptions can make me look foolish or lead to total failure. I have found that patience plays a part in this battle and that a smarter approach can reduce stress while increasing happiness.
Lessons Learned
The meat of this episode comes from recent personal experience. I made an assumption and luckily did not make myself look foolish. I just felt that way afterward. The thing about assumptions is that we make them speed up a process. We could wait patiently and see how things play out instead of jumping to a conclusion. After all, that is what an assumption is. It is a leap to action without waiting to observe something.
The most significant danger with this is that we can be completely wrong in our response to an event or situation. The worst of these occur when law enforcement officers assume a suspect has a gun and is about to fire it. Of course, few of us are ever in that situation, but we do cause ourselves all sorts of grief with incorrect assumptions every day.
Yes, life can be hard. However, it is worth reflecting on how much of that difficulty comes from us making more of situations than warranted.
