Being wrong sucks. It’s inefficient, it’s embarrassing, and sometimes even downright dangerous. It’s a real haymaker right in the old kisser, that’s for sure. And, it’s also the best thing that can happen to you.
Why do I say this? Because it is in those ego-shaking moments between the realization of wrongness and the interminable slog back to rightness that we learn the most. We make the mistake of assuming that everything right we do we’ve done with purpose and intentionality, when in reality sometimes we are just getting plain lucky and not even knowing why. So, it is in these moments of course correction that we unpack the process, look at the layers of work, and groove the pattern of success. Without this gift of being wrong some, we stand little chance of being right more.
But, so what? I’m wrong all the time, you say. That’s not making me any better, faster, smarter, richer. What gives? The secret, I propose, lies in your confidence to be wrong.
It is only the truly confident who can lay themselves bare to the shitshow that is a full frontal failure. And, until you are ready to appreciate and absorb those horrors of that daily show, you won’t be open to the lessons it can bring. Stop trying to look like you’ve got it all together. Stop trying to pretend that you know what you are doing all the damn time. Stop trying to be perfect.
Embrace the imperfection of the process. Wallow in the stink of miscalculation. Muck about in the flawed attempts of trial and error. Let the failure and its lessons wash over you, and be grateful for it. Calculate, test, recalibrate, test, perfect, test, perform. For it is in that confidence to be wrong that we truly find just how right we can be.
