How Assumptions Quietly Control Your Life

Assumptions are useful. They save mental energy and let us move through the day without rethinking everything from scratch. The problem begins when an assumption quietly becomes a rule even though we've never checked whether it's true. That's one reason I keep coming back to the importance of learning to think for yourself.

A wrong assumption can shape more than one decision. You can build goals, plans, and entire systems around something that was never true. Sometimes the fastest way to make progress is not to work harder but to question the premise underneath what you're doing. In other words, better questions can reveal options you weren't able to see before.

I've had that happen in business, but one of the biggest examples in my life was success itself. For years I assumed I needed millions of dollars. Eventually I realized what I actually wanted was freedom. That shift changed the goals I set and the systems I built, which is closely connected to asking whether you're chasing the wrong definition of success.

The practical process is simple: identify the assumption, ask what would have to be true for it to be correct, and write down the evidence. That creates enough distance to evaluate the belief instead of automatically obeying it. It's another form of designing your defaults instead of letting old assumptions make decisions for you.

The goal is not to question every thought. It's to notice the assumptions that control important decisions, especially the ones tied to your biggest goals, your definition of success, your money, your work, and the way you structure your life.

In This Lesson

·        Why assumptions are useful mental shortcuts

·        The difference between a correct assumption and an unexamined one

·        How an assumption can quietly become a rule

·        Why building goals or systems around a false premise is expensive

·        How unexamined assumptions can limit the options you see

·        The affiliate-marketing example that challenged accepted industry wisdom

·        Why family, culture, work, and past experience can create inherited assumptions

·        How my assumption about needing millions changed into a focus on freedom

·        The question I use to examine assumptions more logically

·        Why an assumption is different from a conclusion based on evidence

Watch the video or read the complete transcript below.

How Assumptions Quietly Control Your Life

(Transcript edited for clarity.)

Hi, I'm Wes. Welcome to How Assumptions Quietly Control Your Life. This is Your Life Systems.

Here's the thing about assumptions and how they control our lives.

We all make assumptions.

Assumptions are a mental shortcut that helps us as we go throughout life and throughout each day.

We make assumptions about things.

Sometimes those assumptions are true, and sometimes they're not.

But we use them so we don't have to expend mental energy on every single decision or everything we think about.

Like I said, it's a shortcut.

The problem is not the assumptions we make that are true.

It's the assumptions we make that aren't true.

So if you don't get anything else out of this episode other than this, you need to take a close look at the assumptions you're making in your life to make sure they're true.

When I think about how assumptions can control my life, alter my decision-making, or affect the things I do, I often think: just because everyone else is doing it does not make it true.

Just because everyone else is saying something does not make it true.

So I always try to stop, especially if I'm assuming the same things that a lot of other people are assuming.

I try to take a mental pause and ask, "Is this assumption really true?"

Sometimes it is.

But sometimes it's not.

When you can find your assumptions that aren't true and correct them, that's when you can make huge strides toward whatever you're trying to accomplish.

What are you treating as true that you've never examined?

That's exactly what I'm talking about.

What in your life have you assumed is true that you've never really stopped and asked yourself deeply, "Is this really true?"

Assumptions are useful because they help us move through life without questioning everything.

But an assumption can quietly become a rule.

Again, assumptions are not always bad.

Correct assumptions help us save mental capacity for the important decisions or important things we need to think about.

But if we blindly accept an assumption we haven't evaluated and it's incorrect, it can cost us in a lot of different ways.

If the assumption is wrong, you can build decisions, goals, and systems around something that was never true.

Think about this.

If you have an assumption about something in your life, business, or anything else, and you create an entire goal or system around that incorrect assumption, look at all the time, mental energy, possibly money, and progress you lose by creating systems and goals around an assumption that's incorrect.

Unexamined assumptions limit the options you can see.

This doesn't happen often now, but it used to happen to me much more when I was younger.

I would blindly accept things.

I'd think, "Everybody says this, so it's got to be true."

I'm much better about catching myself now, but I've had to train myself over decades to question most things that are just assumptions.

When I've examined assumptions and found them not to be true, it opens up a lot of different options.

It also opens up opportunities, especially if you're talking about something most people or everyone assumes is true.

If everyone assumes something is true and you can identify that it's not, there's often an opportunity there to make a big jump ahead of other people.

Most often, this happens in business.

People make assumptions about business, and if you can find that one isn't true, you can often profit from that because nobody else is doing it.

Years ago, when I was in the affiliate industry, there was an assumption about traffic from second- and third-tier pay-per-click markets in the market I was in.

The public opinion was that you couldn't make money from them.

It was accepted.

Back then, forums were the big online way to communicate, and everybody in the forum said the same thing.

"You can't make money using these pay-per-click networks, these second- and third-tier networks. It's a waste of money to try."

I didn't believe it.

I found there were ways to make money with them.

Not millions or anything like that, but they could be used profitably.

Because everybody believed you couldn't make money with them, that actually helped me once I figured out how to make money using them because I had less competition.

Many assumptions are inherited from family, culture, work, or past experience.

Experience is a good teacher.

But just because you've had an experience once, does that mean it's always true?

That's one of the most dangerous things when you're making assumptions based on experience.

How in-depth or extensive is your experience?

Was it a one-time thing?

Could it be luck or chance?

Or is it something that's been proven?

I've talked a lot about work and culture, but many assumptions are inherited from family.

We all have a danger of falling into accepting assumptions and accepting things because our family or those closest to us have kind of indoctrinated us.

Not on purpose.

Not nefariously.

But because we were raised a certain way, or because we've spent time around the same type of people for so long, we start having the same assumptions they have.

Those can be the hardest to identify if they're incorrect.

But they can also be very powerful if you can break through and take an honest look at them.

Another story from my past: for years, decades, I had the assumption that I needed to make millions of dollars.

It was always focused on the money.

"I've got to have millions. I've got to have millions."

I used to have a number.

"I've got to have X amount before I can retire," or whatever.

But over the years, I realized that assumption was incorrect.

As soon as I broke through that, as soon as I figured out the assumption that I needed millions was incorrect, I started making huge strides toward what I really wanted.

What I really wanted was freedom.

Money does have something to do with the freedom I'm talking about.

I want financial freedom, but just as importantly, I want time freedom.

Again, money has something to do with those.

But when I stopped chasing a dollar amount and started focusing on time freedom and financial freedom, things became clearer.

I could set better goals.

I could create better systems because I had been focused on the wrong thing.

I had made an assumption that I needed millions.

Sure, millions would lead to some sort of financial freedom, but not necessarily time freedom, health freedom, or the family freedom I was looking for.

I was missing the big picture.

Once I challenged the assumption that I needed millions and started focusing on what proved true after work, study, and evaluation, things started becoming easier and falling into place.

Freedom was important to me, not the dollar amount.

So ask yourself this question with any assumption you're making in your life:

What would have to be true for this assumption to be correct?

When you're trying to look at the assumptions in your life, it's very difficult at first.

You almost have to train yourself to start questioning everything, and that takes a while.

Almost all of us make assumptions that we hold on to too tightly because we don't want them to be wrong.

So it's very difficult for us to look at those types of assumptions correctly or in depth.

But if you train yourself to do this, you can start digging into each assumption to see whether it's true or not.

Again, ask yourself: What would have to be true for this assumption to be correct?

I've used that question, or variations of it, many times when I've assumed something and wanted to take a closer look.

It can reset something in your mind or help you take a step back.

What I do is get out a notepad and answer the question.

I start writing down, "If this assumption is correct, what has to be true?"

Then I jot down one thing, then the next thing.

I try to list everything that has to be true for the assumption to be correct.

That's a good way for me to stop holding on to an assumption and look at it logically.

Sometimes I find out the assumption was correct.

But sometimes I find something on the list that would have to be true, and it isn't.

Then you can make the next step, evaluate it, and change your assumption to something that's going to better help you get what you want.

Ask where each assumption came from and whether there's still evidence to support it.

Some assumptions we make at a very young age and then hold on to because we assume they're true.

But they're not always true.

Just because you decided something once does not mean you were right then, and it doesn't mean it's still right.

So ask where that assumption came from and whether there's still evidence to support it.

Look for small ways to test your assumptions instead of automatically accepting them.

The goal isn't to question everything.

It's to notice the assumptions that are controlling your important decisions.

You can't question everything, but over time you can question all of your big assumptions.

It takes work.

Every time you find yourself automatically thinking something is true, take a minute and consider what you're assuming there.

An assumption is a starting point you haven't fully examined.

A conclusion is something you reach after looking at the evidence.

I talk about being intentional.

As far as assumptions are concerned, the intentional way is to examine the evidence.

That's how assumptions quietly control your life.

Again, it's okay if the assumptions that are controlling your life are correct.

But it's more important right now to start looking at your assumptions.

Start looking at your assumptions, especially the ones that control the big areas of your life, and examine them.

I'm Wes.

This is Your Life Systems.

Please like and subscribe.

Thank you, and good luck.

What's Next?

·        Choose one important belief you're currently treating as true.

·        Ask where that assumption came from.

·        Write down what would have to be true for the assumption to be correct.

·        Look for evidence that supports it and evidence that challenges it.

·        Test the assumption in a small way when possible.

·        If the assumption doesn't hold up, adjust the goal, decision, or system that was built around it.

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