What you believe is really important. Your beliefs affect your actions and influence the direction of your life. If they are healthy and appropriate, that’s a good thing. If they are misaligned and based on false assumptions, they can create all kinds of chaos.
You might think that questioning your beliefs should be an obvious and natural thing to do. But not everyone thinks so.
Often, we don’t allow ourselves to critically observe our beliefs because we’re scared.
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- Scared that we’ll look stupid because of what we’ve believed all these years.
- Scared that the other guy might be right.
- Scared that we won’t like the answer we’ll find.
- Scared that there won’t be an answer.
- Etc.
Many people struggle with the idea of reconsidering their assumptions. If that’s where you are today, I’d like to recommend…
6 Reasons Why You Should Question Your Beliefs:
1. Truth can stand scrutiny.
This is a powerful statement worthy of our remembrance. I’m not sure when it first entered my thinking processes. But, it is a driving assumption in how I approach life. It is one of the statements I have shared the most over the past 5 years or so.
Truth is a “big boy”. It can handle your poking, prodding and questioning.
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2. What is…is.
Some things exist only in our minds. But some things just are. When we’re faced with an absolute fact staring us in the face, it would do us well to acknowledge it for what it is. We have to accept reality.
3. Questioning something doesn’t change what it is.
Our questioning can’t change history. Our questioning can’t change the molecular structure of an object. It can’t make one thing into another particular thing.
Sometimes, we’re scared to question because we feel that we may, in some way, be “tampering” with something really important. We’re concerned that we might “mess it up.”
Not so. Our questions don’t change what it is.
4. Questioning something will expose it for what it is.
- Truth will show itself to be truth.
- Error will show itself to be error.
Either way, you are better off as a result of the questioning.
That’s what questioning pushes us toward…the answers. It helps us have a better understanding of the way things are. It doesn’t change reality, it just illuminates it and shows it for what it is.
5. Passing error as truth is unhealthy.
When I believe something to be true, it affects my actions. My self-image, worldview, prejudices, and belief systems all affect how I live each day.
If what I believe is in error, my daily life will be affected negatively. That’s one of the reasons that it’s so important to continuously refine your beliefs.
It’s not just about being right. It’s about living well.
6. Things should be left in the “not sure” category until they are proven to be otherwise.
If we’re not sure about something, we need to be able to say, “I’m not sure.” We don’t have to be content with that answer all of our life, but we do have to be honest in the moment.
Each of us have things that we want to be true, or that we think are true.
We can’t force the things we WANT to be true into the “definitely true” category. We can’t ignore evidence.
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That’s not helpful. We have to be comfortable saying “I don’t know” sometimes.
The end result of our questioning is a better understanding of life. We get to see things more clearly as we pursue our curiosities. We can’t possibly question everything. We don’t have time.
However, we have a responsibility to question those things that are most obviously affecting how we live and interact with the people around us.
What about you?
- Do you find it hard to question your own assumptions?
- Do you have any examples of times you’ve done this and it had a significant impact on how you lived and saw the world?
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