So much baggage in not wanting to be wrong. Being wrong would mean a mistake, failure, miscalculation, misjudgment. Be wrong is not as good as being right. Being wrong is looked down upon. The perception of losing credibility. Maybe losing trust. Too many wrong calculations can mean failure. Being wrong would mean, you thought you were right at one point. That would mean having to admit you were wrong. Maybe needing to apologize. Admitting you were wrong would mean having to look at yourself with honesty.
So much baggage in having to be right. Having to be right is tiring. Creates defenses, offenses. Being right isn’t the same as what’s actually true. Having to be right isn’t about valuing what’s right, it’s about winning. Having to be right is maintaining a perception, ego, the idea of not being flawed. Having to always be right is a mindset of trying to avoid criticism, trying to be perfect, unrealistic.
Not wanting to be wrong. Having to be right. Maybe two-sides of the same coin. I remember as a young adult, having this mindset and perceptions. I just thought that’s how I was supposed to be, that the world expected perfectionism and anything less is probably not very useful. And at the very least I should give off the perception of having a high success rate.
Granted, being wrong isn’t a great feeling. But at some point, the need to always be right starts to overtake the more sustainable and higher value of being honest with yourself. But once I was able to let go of the responsibility of having to be right or not having to be wrong, and just be a curiosity of what’s true, then I just become an explorer or recorder of what I’m seeing or experiencing. It doesn’t become a moral judgment of my value. And the value actually becomes more on the relationship of two sides experiencing, discovering and traveling “truth” together.
So even when someone has shed the baggage of not wanting to be wrong and having to be right. As you give yourself permission to be so, you’re giving other people to be so and people with same empathy will start to appear, hiding in plain sight. But occasionally you’ll still have to work with, interact and relate to those that hold onto the old stress of this baggage. It’s okay. They’re okay. You’re still okay. We find whatever works for them, yourself, myself at the time. We’re all on our own journey, experiencing our own process – closer to compassion, empathy and understanding.