I’ve spent the last couple of months carefully building a philosophy, something I can call my own, so I can be my own.

You have your beliefs. Your own little weird twists and turns to call your own. Somewhere in the world, there must be someone who is different from you in every way possible, and would disagree with you on almost anything.

Wouldn’t you want them to ask themselves,

What if I’m wrong?

About everything.

We ask other people to do this almost every day. Any conflict, any situation where, though there is no misunderstanding or miscommunication, we disagree on what should be done. When you ask, or even desire that they change, you are telling them to ask themselves,

What if I’m wrong?

About everything.

Should you not show them the same courtesy? Is it fair to simply assume that you’re the one with the “better” perspective. You, a human the same as any other, just as fallible as any other, have somehow come into the world’s sole means of happinness, and would presume to be its keeper?

So, go ahead, ask yourself.

The self that, all these years, has been making judgment calls as best they can.

Ask yourself.

“What if I’m wrong…about everything?”

Go sit down somewhere quiet, somewhere different. Don’t think about how you might be wrong, not yet. Don’t think about why you would be wrong. Don’t think about in what ways you are wrong.

Here, I’ll make it easier for you.

You are wrong.

About everything.

You are wrong in every way that matters, and every way in which you’ve been thinking and living has been a lie. Everything from the trivial to the profound, from the small to the great, from the everyday to the eternal, your assumptions have been wrong.

Embrace the Panic.