What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20 - 书评

太阳的

　　There was once a man named Goldberg who wanted nothing more than to be rich. So each day he went to the synagogue and prayed to God to win the lottery. This went on for days, weeks, months, and years, but Goldberg never won. Eventually, Goldberg was at his wit's end. Praying to God, he said, "You have really let me down." Suddenly the silence was broken and God responded in a booming voice, "Goldberg, you've got to help me out here. You could at least buy a ticket!"
　　
　　This is a joke from Tina Seelig's book What I Wish I Knew When I was 20.  
　　
　　While laughing to myself, I was ashamed of myself, for this joke drives home an understanding that perseverance, specific goals and unswerving faith are worth zilch without the actual doing and I have the first three but the last keys.
　　
　　I am perseverant and strong-willed and I do have a list of goals that I wanted to accomplish in 2011. Yet how many have I achieved in the last 8 months? Not many.
　　
　　Why? Because I didn't even set off toward my goals in actuality.
　　
　　I was also very ashamed of myself falling into the trap of incorrect assumption so easily that Goldberg must have bought a lottery ticket even though this was not mentioned in the story.  
　　
　　Even though I have been educated for years to be wary of making presumption/assumption, I guess I am still inclined to do it all the time, for some knowledge has been there all along that I simply forget that it could and should be a premise to be quesitoned.
　　
　　Why do I have such a strong propensity? I am asking myself as I'm typing here. I guess it's because these assumptions makes my life easier. They enable you to make immediate decisions and reactions.
　　
　　Is making assumptions/presumptions invariably a bad thing?
　　
　　I doubt it. It is also a premise that could be challenged after all, isn't it?