Ninety Percent of the Time

If there's one thing I know, it's that I don't know everything. But some things I am pretty sure of:

90 percent of the time, life requires the skills of chess but is dictated by the chance of roulette.

90 percent of the time, the crisis we fear will occur never does.

90 percent of the time, the crisis we never considered is the one that happens.

90 percent of the time, the advice your mother gives you is quite good, unless of course your mother is nuts.

90 percent of the time, we are safer than our worries warn us.

90 percent of the time, past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior.

90 percent of the time, there is an excellent life partner available to us, right nearby.

90 percent of the time, the person you most want to be like isn't like that at all.

90 percent of the time, the chaos that surrounds a person is caused by that person.

90 percent of the time, we see only what we want to see.

90 percent of the time, we eat too much and say too little.

90 percent of the time, what we know about how nature operates is supported by the next round of data collection.

90 percent of the time, our data collection methods in the natural world are significantly narrow and flawed.

90 percent of the time, anger is underlain by feelings of helplessness.

90 percent of the time, people who have trouble talking with you about what you are going through emotionally predicts they would make bad romantic partners and even worse friends.

90 percent of the time, when we feel certain that we understand someone's motivations, we don't.

90 percent of the time, seeing a mental health professional is at least mildly helpful.

90 percent of the time, a therapist acts as a mirror, helping you to speak the unspeakable, helping to clarify your own strengths and goals.

90 percent of the time, what we anticipate will take the least amount of time requires the most.

90 percent of the time, I have no idea what the odds really are.

Oh well, the probability is that I have most of this at least partially right for most circumstances for many people. Of that I am certain.








This originally was published in a weekly newspaper, as a column wrtten by the author of this blog; no changes were made.