What mistakes are you making? (2)

‘Words of the wise...should be heard...’ Ecclesiastes 9:17 NKJV

Don’t be afraid to ask yourself, ‘What am I missing? What do I not know yet?’ Some people expect nothing but trouble; they’re pessimistic so they don’t look for anything good. But others have a tendency to assume everything is good. Both kinds of thinking can hurt you. Elisabeth Elliot, author of All That Was Ever Ours, points out, ‘All generalisations are false including this one; yet we keep making generalisations. We create images; graven ones that can’t be changed. We dismiss or accept people, products, programmes and propaganda according to the labels they come under. We know a little about something, and we treat it like we know everything.’ Learn to be more discerning! It’s easy to make decisions based on what you know, but there are always things you don’t know. It’s easy to choose a direction based on what you see, but what don’t you see? We learn only when we’re willing to ask, ‘What am I missing?’ That question causes you, and those around you, to stop and think. It’s easy to see what’s obvious, but asking tough questions brings to the surface things that aren’t obvious. Not asking questions is to assume that a project is potentially perfect and that if it’s handled with care, there will be no problems. You learn in life, often painfully, that this simply isn’t reality. Two things will stop you dead in your tracks: (1) Overanalysing to the point that you’re paralysed and afraid to act. (2) Under analysing and moving ahead before you have sufficient knowledge and the wisdom to implement it.