Weekly Quote: Twain on Assumptions

I was having a conversation with my agent the other day wherein I expressed a business prejudice based upon a business situation in which I'd been burned years before. When held up to the light and examined, I quickly saw that I'd succumbed to the mind's need to create cause and effect associations, an inclination that can prove counterproductive, as Mark Twain noted long ago.

We should be careful to get out of an experience only the wisdom that is in it - and stop there; lest we be like the cat that sits down on a hot stove lid. She will never sit on a hot stove lid again - and that is well; but also she will never sit down on a cold one anymore. -Mark Twain


As you go about your busy week, take time to dust off an old assumption and ask yourself, is there really anything to this that holds up now? Try opening your mind and looking at the possibilities anew. You may find your own faulty beliefs have been holding you back for far too long.

This week's writing theme song: "The Waiting" by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Listen to it free here.

Do you have a theme to share?

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