Questioning assumptions and staying mentally alert in an unpredictable world.

Start each day by challenging your assumptions.

Comfort and routine can create a false sense of certainty.

The world can change suddenly, without warning.

Being wrong is less dangerous than believing you can’t be wrong.

Awareness and reflection help maintain resilience.

In a college seminar, a professor brought a pet turkey to illustrate a point.

The turkey experiences predictable, comfortable routines with regular food.

It assumes this pattern will continue forever.

Then everything changes suddenly—the day before Thanksgiving.

The metaphor illustrates the danger of assuming that yesterday guarantees tomorrow.

The speaker developed a daily routine:

Wake up and look in the mirror.

Tell himself that everything he believes might be wrong.

Spend the day proving those beliefs true again.

This keeps him:

Curious

Alert

Humble

Prepared for change

The real danger is certainty without awareness.

When people become too confident in their assumptions, they stop noticing signals that the world is changing.

Tomorrow morning:

Look in the mirror.

Ask yourself: What am I assuming today?

Go out and test those assumptions again.

“The danger is not being wrong. The danger is being so sure you are right that you stop paying attention.”