Temporarily Embracing Being Wrong Opens Doors to Value Moving Forward
And why cringing at old "you" is not a negative
Learning that we’ve erred or have been “wrong" in our thinking is part of being human. It’s extremely uncomfortable sometimes, more so for some people than others. Yet there is benefit, sometimes it’s tremendous value, in discovering where we made a wrong turn in our thinking, decision making and actions.
When it hurts to learn, that’s actually a very positive development.
Sahil Bloom talks about it directly and briefly in a recent LinkedIn post.
Bloom is a writer and content creator and publishes the smart, bi-weekly newsletter, “The Curiosity Chronicle.” He is additionally the owner of SRB Holding and the managing partner of SRB Ventures, an early-stage investment fund.
He advises us to rewire our mindset for becoming an ally to ourselves and our future. “You start embracing being wrong,” Bloom writes.
Why would anyone want to do this, emotionally and psychologically, whether when it’s just us by ourselves or around other people?
He elaborates: “They realize that finding the truth is much more important than being ‘right.’ In fact, they legitimately enjoy being wrong.”
Make it make sense, Sahil.
“They embrace new information as software updates to their brain,” Bloom explains.
Ah, there it is. And maybe if they and we don’t necessarily enjoy being wrong we can learn to become emotionally and psychologically able to, and willing to, tolerate it.
We are now less ignorant, better informed, smarter and we can take that with us moving forward, preventing many future mistakes, at least in some areas. We can shorten the learning curve as well in our personal and professional lives.
Bloom also offers as encouragement that we are growing as people and getting even better when “You start cringing at yourself from six months ago.”
Yes, cringing at what used to be recently is a welcomed road marker in your life.
”The cringe you feel when you look back at your old output, mindsets, beliefs, behaviors and actions is a positive indicator,” Bloom writes.
“It means you've learned, changed, developed and grown.”
We can beat ourselves up, habitually, when we are reminded of and dwell on our cringe past. If we’ve improved however, that past shouldn’t be a prison we continue to visit over and over.
“If you feel that urge to cringe at where you were,” Bloom says, “consider it a nice reminder of your progress.”
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