Steve Andreas > Books Authored > Six Blind Elephants > Chapter 7

Misusing a larger scope

Usually enlarging scope is useful, but like any skill, it can also be misused. People sometimes use their ability to forecast the future to predict that they will always be troubled by a traumatic memory or a present difficulty. Nearly every week I read reports in the local newspaper of people saying things like, “I’ll always be tortured by thoughts of his death,” or “These scars will haunt me for the rest of my life,” or “I’ll carry this pain with me to the grave.” This kind of statement reveals an unwarranted extension of a present problem into a much larger scope of future time, something that is not useful, and tends to prevent any attempts to change it. I call this “fortune-telling without being properly qualified,” and I jokingly ask people to show me their fortune-telling license, to point out the absence of any real basis for their certainty that the problem can never be solved.

A prediction that a problem can never be solved is a categorization of the problem that prevents any attempt to resolve the problem itself. By refocusing attention on the scope of their problem now, rather than their pessimistic long-range forecast, we can return to useful problem-solving, and often find a solution. A similar prediction that present happiness will last forever may feel better for a while, but it is a setup for future disappointment.