No Assumptions

Tutorial - No Assumptions, No Expectations

What is the source of power? Give this question a moment's thought, then write down your answer.

In medieval Japan warriors used to train themselves before battle with this question to cope with the fear of death. Sometimes after months (at times years) of exasperation they would turn to the master and shout, "I don't know."

"You have it!" the master would reply. "I don't know . . . that is the source of your power. No assumptions, no expectations. Become like water, humble, adaptive to all conditions in all situations."

Imagine if Neville Chamberlaine had had the foresight after his meeting with Hitler to pause and say to himself, "I don't know. . . none of us really knows this man. Perhaps we should be more vigilant."

Or if Lyndon Johnson had dropped his assumptions that the Vietnamese insurgency was a Russian Communist plot rather than a nationalist peasant insurrection, how might things have been different?

Here Is How To Practice

	Step 1: Pick the most important negotiation in which you are now engaged and identify the most important premise or assumption on which you are operating.
	Step 2: Now say to yourself, "I don't know, I really don't know. Let me find out."
	Step 3: Track the issue and see what you discover.
	Step 4: Then reflect upon the process.

The more you increase integrity -- your sense of connectedness, coherence, wholeness and vitality -- the less you will have need of assumptions (no assumptions). Assumptions are like props -- for awhile they hold us up, eventually they get in the way and bog us down. They introduce a needless routine into our lives and often filter out the magic of the moment. Practice dropping all assumptions whenever you can and watch how your vital energies grow.

An expectation is nothing more than an assumption with an ego complex. Expectations feed upon themselves. Twisted by emotions and fueled by a sense of entitlement an expectation often projects an erroneous picture of the world. Assumptions dull your wits, expectations steal the pleasure of the moment.Therefore the wise player pays particular attention to climbing expectations.