28 Jun 2010, Posted by Josh Allan Dykstra in Legacy, Life, 2 Comments. Tagged change, growth, ideas, philosophy

Being Right Or Being Open

Let’s get this out there first: I love being right.

I think this is generally true for most people, but something about my intensely competitive nature — and the fact that I think things through pretty well before I make up my mind — seems to amplify this feeling even more.

There’s nothing wrong with being right. Making “correct” decisions can help people, help organizations, and help the world.

But at the end of the day, doesn’t an obsessive need to be right all the time come in direct conflict with being open to new things?

Fundamentally, if I believe I already have the end-all-be-all “gospel truth,” it also means I’ve closed my mind to other options. I’m no longer open to hearing other perspectives or seeing from someone else’s point of view.

Maybe we can only be “right” until we learn something new.

We make the best decisions we can with the information we have, but then we learn something we didn’t know before — something that upsets our apple cart, shifts our paradigm. Suddenly, we aren’t “right” anymore.

Perhaps that’s the more important part of this: being committed to always learning new things, being open to change, and available for growth.

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