Casting Nets
Give up the need to always be right
Chuck Randle

During the Lenten Season I'm emphasizing attitudes we might consider "giving up."

How about "giving up" the need to always be right. Often real growth occurs when we recognize that mistakes can set us on a journey that takes us places in our thought processes where we've never been before.

The need to always be right may reflect uncertainty on our part which will not allow us to entertain other thoughts. Insisting on always being right breeds arrogance, self-righteousness, and a sanctimonious attitude. Not only do we drive away people, we also drive away knowledge, for as we refuse to consider opposing opinions, we close the door on new ideas. Edward de Bono said, "The need to be right all the time is the biggest bar to new ideas. It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong than to be always right by having no ideas at all."

Albert Einstein wrote, "Desire for approval and recognition is healthy motive, but the desire to be acknowledged as better, stronger, or more intelligent than a fellow being of fellow scholar easily leads to an excessively egoistic psychological adjustment, which may become injurious for the individual and for the community."

The need to always be right is really a destructive attitude. Dr. Wayne Dyer said, "when the choice is to be right, or to be at peace, always choose peace." Have a healthy Lent.