Being able to be wrong

[caressa]

Today's thought from Hazelden is:

Being able to be wrong

We had to compete with everyone, sometimes subtly, sometimes less subtly. We always had to be right, to be wrong seemed unbearable. We could never seem to bring ourselves to say simply, "I was wrong." We were afraid of what would happen to us if we did. Our egos were very fragile; we were never as strong as we had led ourselves to believe.

We came to discover, however, that real strength comes from being able to be wrong and from being willing to change our ways of thinking and living.

Can I face being wrong and learn from it?

Higher Power, help me realize each day that it is okay to be wrong, that real communication with other people depends on my being willing to see other points of view, and that being teachable is a divine quality.

You are reading from the book:



Day by Day - Second Edition by Anonymous

[Lin]

My favorite quote that helps me about this is...Do i want to be happy or do I want to be right?

I usually choose HAPPY and let it go.

LIN

[majestyjo]

Can I face being wrong and learn from it?

My mother always said, "If you can't do it right, don't do it at all."  I had a hard time admitting to be wrong or allowing anything to be left undone if it wasn't right, at least to my eyes.  I was a proof reader for several years too, so that also added to the perfectionist within me.   My motto was, "I can't stand stupidity, especially within myself."  I beat myself up royally.  It really helped to hear, just because I did something stupid, didn't mean I was stupid, that was not the way I was brought up."

My father use to say, "If you had a brain, it would rattle;"  "If you had a brain, it would get lonesome;" and the list went on and on....  Where his words stopped, my ex-husband(s) took over, and I had a lot of old tapes to erase and make over.

There wasn't much happy in my life Lin.

[caressa222]

Ms. Perfection came about by being told it wasn't right to be wrong.


She is part of my dis-ease, she had to be healed in recovery.