The Illusion of Assurance

Have you ever received relationship advice from someone - not just a joke or a remark made in passing, but those real, deep conversations about what works and what doesn't and what you should be doing? And then the person who gave you the advice ended up being divorced or out of a relationship a couple of years later?

People love to believe that they have all of the answers, that their experience has provided them with uncommon wisdom, even when they don't know much at all. Perhaps it's a psychological defense mechanism. If we couldn't pump ourselves up with a sense of certainty, even when we don't understand a situation very well, we would never have the confidence to go out and do things and take chances. It's only though living life and taking chances that we gain wisdom. 

But even when we have amassed considerable experience, life will still present us with surprises. Big, humiliating surprises that we never could have foreseen. Perhaps the most important thing that we can ever learn is a sense of humility.

Copyright © 2014 Daniel R. South 

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