Today's
quotation:
People should
never be ashamed to own they have been
in the wrong,
which is but saying, in
other words, that
they are wiser today than they were yesterday.
Alexander Pope
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Today's
Meditation:
I've
always been afraid to make mistakes and have other people
judge me because of them. Somewhere along the line,
I fell into the trap of thinking that mistakes were
somehow wrong, and that they somehow are a reflection of
me as a person. It's always been important to me to
be "right," no matter what the circumstances.
This
need to be right has put a huge burden on me, one that I
never deserved to have to carry. Part of it, I know,
is cultural--in this age of information at a moment's
notice, we've come to expect people to have answers--the
right answers--at the drop of a hat. I feel very
fortunate that over the last decade or so I've been able
to leave the need to be right behind me and move on with
my life with a more healthy perspective.
I'm
now willing not just to admit that I'm wrong, but also to
stick my neck out with ideas or thoughts that may be
wrong. The possibility of being wrong no longer
threatens my emotional well-being; if I'm wrong, I'm
wrong, and I learn from that.
In
Paul Young's song "Everything Must Change," he
sings: "I was never one to back out of an
argument and say I was wrong / Even when I'd seen the
other side, I'd hide my foolishness and carry
on." This line describes so many of
us--continuing to argue even after it's very clear that
we're wrong. But what's wrong with being
wrong? Absolutely nothing, and it's even a great
thing when we consider why we're wrong and learn from
it. If we take it too seriously and too personally,
we're in trouble. If we use it to help us to grow in
wisdom, we're right on course to a better life.
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