Got Doubts?!?

We all have doubts from time to time ... about our job, our goals, our finances, our loves, our decisions (or lack thereof!) I think doubts are a way of life; but they're also nothing to fear, and quite frankly, a heathy way of looking at things in order to make better, more informed decisions. I looked up doubt on wiki and found this:

• Doubt: a status between belief and disbelief, involves uncertainty or distrust or lack of sureness of an alleged fact, an action, a motive, or a decision.

Albert Einstein says: The important thing is not to stop questioning.

Great doubts...deep wisdom.
Small doubts... little wisdom.
~Chinese Proverb

True wisdom is less presuming than folly. The wise man doubteth often, and changeth his mind; the fool is obstinate, and doubteth not; he knoweth all things but his own ignorance. ~Akhenaton

Shakespeare's quote: Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt.

All this in an attempt to figure out some angst I have been feeling, and am ruling it as doubt, which of course seems to be a manifestation of fear. Or is it our fears that leave us with doubts? Either way, they seem to go hand in hand. When I read these quotes, though, I got to thinking: How are doubts good for us? When faced with a temptation, or something that sounds too good to be true, and we have doubts, its that doubt that would steer us in the right direction. In my own case, however, it's the fear the is creating the doubts: fear of being wrong, fear of being hurt.

Although opposites, "trust" and "doubt" complement each other. From doubt, we learn what and who to trust. From trust, we learn what and who to doubt. Doubt means you don't understand things but need to dig deeper, investigate. Trust implies, to varying degrees, that "I know you" (whether "you" is a friend or is a product). Trust implies, in some way, that I have given what I trust some power over me, whether the power is to influence or to love or to buy.

So it seems that when we have doubts, or even fears, we still need to use that old standby, trust, to help us figure out what to do. One of the things I've always used to help me make (semi) reasonable choices, is from Ben Franklin's take on doubt, I like this the best:

When in doubt, don't.

Doubt-less HUGS to everyone!!