I thought I was wrong once, but I was mistaken.
I write a bit about failure. I expect my kids to fail—indeed, I expect them to fail. I expect to fail myself, and I expect others to fail. Failure is a necessary part of growth.
I was recently encouraged by a friend to explore the growth potential in being wrong. It is not that we should seek to be wrong. Rather, we need to accept and admit when we are wrong as factor in growth.
Denial just ain’t a river in Egypt. Denial of our error stagnates growth. It robs us the opportunity to grow.
As a university professor, one of the most important things I can teach my students is to challenge what I (and others teach). I admit that I don’t know everything. I can’t know everything. (One of my only permissible uses of the word “can’t”.) And what I do know is subject to change—and has changed over time—because I, too, am learning. If I am not learning (i.e., not accepting my errors), I am not growing.
We seem to be living in a society that is ever retreating to its safe, dogmatic, worldviews. We hold on to our beliefs without question. We deny any evidence contrary to our established views.
We preach tolerance as a good thing. Tolerance is a good thing with regards to respecting others’ views and level of understanding, but tolerance can also be an excuse to remain unchanging. Tolerance allows one to avoid questioning his or her worldview. Merriam-Webster defines tolerance as “to allow to be or to be done without prohibition, hindrance, or contradiction”. The implication is that “I don’t agree, but I will let others be”. It denies the exploration of whether we are even correct in our current thinking. It closes the door to discourse. Worse than tolerance, though, is intolerance.
The concept of well-centered fitness emphasizes the need to balance one’s self spiritually, physically, intellectually, emotionally, and socially. It is more than just simply balance. One can easily balance their current Spiritual, Physical, Intellectual, Emotional, and Social dimensions with minimal effort. I approach the wellness dimensions from a “fitness” perspective because this implies progression and adaptation to challenges to one’s “homeostasis”. In other words, it suggests growth and constant improvement—kaizen. The prospect for growth suggests that improvement is warranted (i.e., we might be “wrong”).
If I suggest that one should “be your best today; be better tomorrow”, this implies that today is “good”, but not “good enough”. Accept being wrong as a part of the growth process. If you recognize where you are wrong you are on the path of growth. Keep moving forward!
Carpe momento!