Question everything
When you “know” something, question it more.
Why? How could you have a sense of stability if you’re always questioning everything?
There are two vital functions that are served by questioning everything.
You may think that by questioning everything, you lose stability, but I find the opposite to be true. Through continuous inquiry, what’s “real” sticks around. You don’t lose stability, you gain it by uncovering a greater understanding of the “truth.”
Conversely, by always questioning, you increase the chance that you find out something isn’t the way you thought it was. By virtue of having this habit, when this happens, you can rejoice. It becomes easier to let go of “false” concepts without clinging to them; without identifying the self as being the thoughts.
It’s a filter. Like panning for gold in the mind.
Concepts undergo the process of stratification, the gold stays in the pan, while the dirt is loosened, lifted, and washed out.
It’s destructive towards errant thoughts and behavior, and constructive towards truth and authenticity.
You can develop conviction about things while maintaining flexibility to learn and grow.
You can be relaxed and calm when presented with opposing viewpoints and be able to examine them with honesty without taking them personally.
With this frame, when your views are opposed or questioned, they won’t be fragile, they’ll be informed.
You can avoid the trap of “being stuck in your ways.”
But— for all this to work the questioning needs to remain honest, it needs to be applied evenly, even when it’s uncomfortable, and importantly, it requires an acceptance of self-accountability.
There are many elusive ways to get stuck in life, having pride in thinking you really “know” something, and inadvertently allowing that pride to stifle your development is one of them.
Part of my concept of questioning everything is derived to facilitate being comfortable holding the magnifying glass to yourself and taking a closer look.
To be able to uncover and let go of the heavy weights that you may be carrying with you through life without realizing it.
This can take time, and often, actual experience is needed to move things along in that process, but progress is surely possible.