How Unquestioned Thinking Holds You Back

Society has trained us to think negatively. We instinctively do so. This unquestioned thinking holds us back from our true potential.

Byron Katie wrote in A Thousand Names For Joy, that, “Everything happens for you, not to you. Everything happens at exactly the right moment, neither too soon nor too late. You don’t have to like it…. It’s just easier if you do. If you have a problem, it can only be because of your unquestioned thinking.”

This is often quoted in the absence of the last sentence in bold. In my opinion, the last sentence is the key to understanding and using the rest of the quote, and discloses two things. The contemporary negativity that plagues human thought, and the danger of unquestioned thinking.

We tend to think that when something that we do not like happens to us, things are conspiring against us, against our success – we think that things have happened to us.

That is the result of unquestioned thinking…

…Of not taking the time to step back and question the reality of the situations that we face.

We will see, from the very moment that we confront our initial, instinctive thoughts, the truth that things are not happening to us.

Once we see that, a couple of things happen. First, our stress levels fall, and we start to have a clarity about our thoughts. Next, we start to use everything that we thought was happening to us, as a stepping stone. That’s when we realize that these things actually happened for us.

Tyler Perry said that the “trials we go through and the blessings we receive are the same thing.” Bearing that truth in mind, we avoid playing the victim, and we start embracing all that happens as propelling us forward.

Victims never get anywhere…

…Seeing the truth that things happen for us, breaks us free of that victim mindset.

In my case, I believe in a God that it good, loves me, and in a bible that tells me that all things happen for my good. I know that to be true, and that anchors me in my belief that everything conspires for me, rather than against me.

However, the conditioning of society still has me thinking negatively, at least that very first thought. So, knowing the dangers of unquestioned thinking, I’ve learnt to question my instinctive, initial thoughts. It is only by doing this that I manage to come back to the reality that everything happens for me, and not to me.

I never would have found the time and financial freedom, and the fulfillment of the work that I currently do, by leaving my thoughts unquestioned. I would still be the “poor little rich lawyer” that I was for 20 years.

Whatever your circumstances, bear in mind the danger of unquestioned thinking. Start questioning your initial thoughts, see the truth unfold, and your life transform.