It is human nature to want to know. There are two negative outcomes of this. One, the mind wants to know and have guarantee of future, which by definition is not possible. Two, in absence of guarantee or information, it speculates. In both scenarios, much mental energy is spent on futile tasks. So what does one do to handle such mind?
Let’s suppose, you had an interview and are waiting for a call back. What do you do, do you worry about “whether you will get the job or not?” Even if the interview went well and you strongly feel you will get the job, what is the most empowering assumption you can make. Of course in this case, the empowering assumption would be that “that you would get the job”. Why? What if I don’t get the job?
Well my rationale for having empowering assumptions is simple, it keeps us happy and going. Any which way the you don’t get the job you will deal with the consequences and emotions later on, so why live them longer by starting to worry about it sooner. On the other hand if we have empowering assumptions, we will feel better and spend our time more positively and create other options and other things of value in the time we would have otherwise whiled away worrying or hypothesizing.
If you are forced to assume, assume the best and give your best.
When data and information is sparse, our mind creates scenarios that soon become real and we convince ourselves – “this is how it is”, “this is what is going to happen”. Not knowing or having an explanation is difficult, the mind yearns for answers and explanations that fit.
The mind also responds to any things that can be construed as fearful, so it is more likely to spend its energy on all negative scenarios – however unlikely or unsupported they are. As a matter of fact a skeptical mind can go on creating many logical explanations as to why something negative is going to happen.
Overtime what I learnt is that it is not possible to know anything in advance for sure as there are so many things that can affect the outcomes. So what does one do? Why not have empowering assumptions.