What if its not true?

I saw a Facebook story of a friend. He says questioning everything will help you make wiser decisions.

It reminds of my failures in the past few years. I failed to question most ideas and claims, stories and statements that resulted to choices with almost irreparable damages. If I could have just asked myself,

"Is this true?"

"What if its not true?" "What are the evidence that says its true?" "...or the evidences that says its not?" "What are the stakes? What would I gain? What would I lose?"

"Can I afford it if everything was a lie?...or just an overstatement, or just plainly wrong?"

If I could have asked myself these questions, I may have made different choices. Sometimes we tell ourselves stories that we want to believe - the story of success, the story of positive results - and ignore the possibility of failure. It's maybe because of what we were used to hear: "think positive," "law of attraction," etcetera. etcetera.

I realized that my idea of positive thinking was wrong. "Focus only on thinking the positive result." "Don't entertain negative scenarios, or else you'll attract it." This is how I think in the previous years. And I have failed to challenge my confirmation bias - I reject everything that says what I believe is wrong.

Now I realized that to think positively is not to cling to the desired outcome, or to refuse entertaining its yang, but to believe that whatever happens, whatever the result is, everything will be fine.

Being a positive thinker is not being stubborn to consider negative outcomes. Its being faithful that whatever hardship comes, we can endure.

We cannot control the result, and there is no 100% guarantee. We can only influence the result or increase its probability - but there will always be uncertainty, and there will always be factors we cannot control.

Before we make a decision, especially a high-stake decision, its helpful if we ask ourselves..

"What if we fail?" "Can we afford it?"

This will help us adjust the amount of risk we'll take.

Or if we're making a decision from someone's statement.

"Is the statement true?"

"What if its not true?"

"What are the possibilities that its not true?"

This will help us become more objective and rational.

"The more desire I have for something to work out a certain way, the less likely I am to see the truth."

- Naval Ravikant