Everyone makes assumptions. This is a fact of life. As a scientist, I’m used to making assumptions. I assume that the laws of Physics are the same everywhere in the Universe. It seems to work. There’s no real a priori reason that this should be true but we like to write coherent theories that can be used to make real predictions. Like I said before, it seems to work. There are many assumptions that people make on a daily basis that are more than acceptable. For example, you see a green crossing signal and you assume that the traffic is going to stop to let you cross the road. This is pretty reasonable though, if a driver hits you, they’re in some serious trouble with the law. I do always have a good look around before I step into the middle of the road, despite the signal to go. I simply trust my eyes more than a traffic signal.

Our biggest fear is not that we are inadequate
Our biggest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure
We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
Your playing small doesn’t serve the world
We are born to make manifest the glory of God [sic] that is within us
and as we let our own light shine
we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same

A lot of assumptions are reasonable, but some are not. Some assumptions that you make in your day to day life could be holding you back from achieving your full potential. This website is partly about helping people to achieve the best they possibly can.

Here are five assumptions that can limit your life if you believe them.

God Exists

I’m going to start with a controversial one and see how we go from there. The purpose of this post isn’t to discuss wether or not god exists. It’s not my place to tell you what to believe. Only you can do that. In fact the title is probably a bit misleading. Assuming that there is something else after your life on Earth is the really limiting assumption. This is true even if you don’t believe that organized religions aren’t using fear to manipulate the population whilst maintaining a position of power over their believers.

Consider the other point of view. When you die you die. That’s it, that’s the end. If that is the case, you are now living for yourself. You no longer have any excuses for not doing what you want. You are totally responsible for the life time that you have here on Earth. That may sound scary, but once you get over the fact that you are really in control, it frees up a whole world of opportunities for you to enjoy. Living your life for yourself is probably the single most empowering decision you can make. Living to make a “god” happy isn’t very empowering at all. Especially if the god you believe in doesn’t like you doing cool stuff. Asking yourself something along the lines of “what would Jesus do?” turns into “What would I do?” . We are all immensely powerful, sometimes we just need permission to do what we know we should.

I’m not saying that everyone should ditch their religion or spirituality. Far from it, I believe that everyone has the right to decide what they believe. I would, however, encourage people to be brave enough to live for themselves, not for the promise of some reward after the end of their lives.

There Is Perfect Timing

Waiting for the perfect time to do something is stupid. Believing that there is a perfect time to do something is just giving you an excuse to not do it. The perfect time for doing something is NOW.

Every time you put something off and reward yourself for being smart, you are reenforcing putting it off. Even if it turned out that the perfect time arrived, you’d probably still miss the opportunity. Putting something off is really not good. Can you think of something that you’ve been putting off, waiting for a better opportunity? Perhaps you want to quit your job and start a business? Perhaps you want to have a child with your partner? Perhaps you want to go to the shop and buy some chocolate but it’s raining. For all but the last decision, the time is now.

There will never be a perfect time to make a major change in your life. Things always change. The best thing you can do, if it is something you really want, is take the leap, NOW. JUST DO IT!

Fear Is Bad

We all fear things. It is part of being human. There are very good reasons for this to be the case as well. Imagine if our anscestors weren’t scared of anything. Chances are humans wouldn’t have survived.

Thankfully we have evolved since then. Fear is now a good thing. Fear tells us what we need to do. The more we fear something the more we know that it is what we must do.

It is too easy to paralyse ourselves by being afraid of things. If we are constantly scared of pushing our boundaries then we will never achieve anything worthwhile in our lives. When we do not control our fear, our fear will control us.  Whenever we put off a decision because it scares us, we subconsciously reward ourselves.  Our brain says thank you for avoiding that difficult situation.  It releases some endorphins or some other chemical (Biologists, please feel free to comment) that makes us feel good.  We are programmed to reward avoiding fear because of the biological imperative to survive but this becomes addictive. The more we reward ourselves for this negativity, the more likely we are to repeat it.

An example.  You see a really great looking girl / guy in a bar but you decide not to go and introduce yourself.  Later, the same person leaves with someone else.  You think “I’m glad  I didn’t go say hi otherwise I’d have looked stupid”.  Phew!  You relax and chill out but leave by yourself (or with your friends).  The other opportunity is to go say hi and find out for yourself.  This is scary. It has to be done.  If you let fear rule your life you will become paralysed by it and when the perfect (close to perfect, see point 2) opportunity comes along, you’re so used to being afraid that you can’t make the most of it.

I believe there are two types of people in the world. Those ruled by love and those ruled by fear. The two emotions are opposite.  I think it is far better to be ruled by love than fear. This doesn’t mean stick your hand in a fire because getting burned scares you, that’s just stupid.  Do something because it scares you and because you love the outcome.  The more something scares you, the more you should try to do it.

You Have To Work Hard To Get Ahead

This is the work smart not hard blog. This was always going to come up somewhere.

It does seem that the only way to get ahead is to work hard.  Everyone is always going on about how hard they worked to get where they are today.  It seems to have become ingrained in in our psyche that the only way to get ahead is work 9 to 5, Monday to Friday and slack off over the weekend.  I disagree. Working smart allows you far greater freedom with your life.  There is only one commodity that we cannot make more of and that is time.  The typical view of life seems to be something like this:  Get qualified, get a job, do job, save money, retire and die.  I don’t know about you but I think that sounds a bit crap.  I believe there is another way. The smart way to work.  Don’t grind away doing repetitive, boring and meaningless tasks for some boss who’s just doing the same for their boss and so on up the employment ladder.  Use your time to create real value.

If you spend your time creating value and building smart systems that can reduce the work you have to do, chances are you will create far more value and you will definitely have more time to spend doing what you love.  The world has so much to offer.  Whilst you can have a fulfilling retirement (I’ve been told), wouldn’t you rather make the most of your youth?  Getting out in the world and doing all the stuff that you see other people doing and wish you could?  I’ve got a brainwave for you.  You’re never going to have that lifestyle sitting behind a desk.  If you think you are, you are kidding yourself.  Time is the new money.  Liberate your time and you will liberate your life.

… And They All Lived Happily Ever After

I really don’t like this assumption. People seem to make it a lot though.  I will do such and such and I will be happy.  I will work hard and buy a nice car and I’ll be happy.  I’ll meet my dream partner and we’ll be happy.  There is no thought about what’s making you happy.  Happiness is eternal for those lucky enough to be able to embrace it but the nature of happiness is not about what you have but the journey you are taking.

“He who binds himself to a Joy,
Does the winged life destroy;
He who kisses the Joy as it flies,
Lives in Eternity’s sunrise.”

-William Blake

I believe in a very fluid nature of existence.  The only thing that is permanent is impermanence.  Getting a nice car will make you happy for a while but thinking that having the car is what will make you happy is ultimately going to leave you feeling empty and disappointed.  Waking up every morning, looking at how beautiful it is will make you happy.  Taking it for a blast along a country road on a cool but bright evening as the sun is setting and appreciating the beauty of the environment and the pleasure of driving the car will make you happy.  Simply owning a nice car will not make you happy by it’s self.

If you don’t accept the impermanence view you leave yourself open to a crippling fear.  The fear of loss.  I love my car, I don’t want to lose it!  I’m scared of losing it!  If you appreciate the experiences you have with the car for their sake rather than simply because of the car, the loss is less relevant.  It’d suck to lose the car but your identity and definition of happiness haven’t been built around the car but  around the less tangible (and less losable) experiences you have.

Rather than doing something for the outcome, do it because you love doing it.  The outcome will take care of it’s self and you will be happy.

Assumptions And Your Reality

The only things that are true are the laws of nature and the laws of the land

-Timothy Ferriss (paraphrased)

The truth (in my reality) is that the only things that are true are those which you decide are true and the two exceptions mentioned above.  What assumptions have you made about life that aren’t necessarily true?  The five I have listed here are some of the ones which most influence my outlook on the world.  I

What assumptions are you making that are holding you back?  Do you need to make them?  If not, I encourage you to stop making them

Other Posts You Might Find Interesting