How can we replace what we think with what we know?

Despite living in a time where all the world’s knowledge is available to anyone with a cell phone, we still live in an uncertain realm, filled with empty space, hanging questions and knowledge gaps.

And because of the fundamental human desire for predictability and control, we eagerly fill those holes.

Our brains have a way of color correcting the world, so to speak, when we believe it’s been filtered through the wrong light.

And so, we start guessing. Our minds fill our intellectual void with theory and conjecture. Burning away valuable energy with useless speculation.

Now, to be fair to our brains, it’s pretty fun. There’s this visceral satisfaction we get from pressing that recline button on our armchairs and theorizing about why we’re feeling the way we feel.

What we really need during moments of uncertainty is less speculation and more experience. We must avoid purely guessing about our circumstances and go do something to change them. Moving away from the theoretical speculation about what might work, and into to the real world experience of what does work.

My old tech startup boss always used to tell our team to ask the following question.

How can we replace what we think with what we know?

Such a brilliant tool. This active and directive practice kept us accountable to reality. The question created a new expectation about our own ability to take action.

Whenever we found ourselves sitting around in a conference room, guessing about a particular product launch, marketing initiative or customer complaint, we took a step back and looked at the data. Ashley would remind us, guys:

Too much theorizing can hamper our quest for growth. Our starting assumptions will end up being wrong, which means our whole paradigm will be wrong. Focus on what we know, not what we think. Let’s not stress each other out going to such speculative heights with every decision.

What our team quickly learned was, each time we chose to actualize rather than theorize, we moved ahead. Each time we brought our energy back down out of our heads and into the ground and used it to take action in the world, good results happened.

Are you ready to abandon your armchair? How could you manage uncertain with less speculation and more experience?

It’s not like we live in the dark ages anymore where we’re guessing about medical conditions like depression, anxiety, stress and trauma. Or where running a business is a blind crap shoot and there’s no way to increase your chances of success.

There’s more precedent than you might realize.

In closing, we turn to a brilliant scene from the movie about rigged television quiz shows. The network executive tells his assistant:

I can’t think of anything that’d sound guiltier than a man who hasn’t been accused of anything protesting his innocence. Speculation in our society has a way of becoming fact.

Remember, guessing is for groundhogs.

It’s time to move away from the theoretical speculation about what might work, and get into to the real world experience of what does work.

How can you replace what you think with what you know?