The Power of Not Pretending

The other day, I was skimming through my old copy of Vernon Howard’s terrific book, A Treasury of Trueness, and came upon this passage...

Key Point: “When you don’t know something and stick with that unknowing, there is no conflict. Conflict occurs when you don’t understand something about life but pretend that you do by grabbing your own answers.”

This is *not* to say we shouldn’t think about it and work hard to find the answer. Not only is that effort totally acceptable, it might just be what we are mainly put on earth to do. (Of course, I don’t know that for sure.) ;-)

Important: What I believe Mr. Howard means is that we should first acknowledge that we don’t know, then do our best to seek the answer in a logical and effective way so that we can come as close to the truth as reasonably possible.

And...when we’re pretty sure that we *have* figured it out and that we *do* know, we should still probably question it.

I mean, we might truly have the answer.

Then again, we might not. And that’s also okay.

There are lessons there, as well.

Today’s Exercise: Think on Mr. Howard’s statement. Perhaps print it out or write it down and read it a number of times throughout the day. As you come across “a thing,” ask yourself if you do know for sure...or if you’re simply “grabbing your own answers” (or its “cousin” — unconsciously accepting it as handed to you by the world around you).

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