August 7: What nobody teaches you: being wrong…

I’ll make you a bet.

I bet you can remember, without much effort at all, a time you were wrong.

Painfully wrong.

Hugely wrong.

The kind of wrong where you can still feel the heat of embarrassment creeping up your neck if you think about it too long.

I've got plenty of those.

My favorite is dumb and harmless:

You see, I learned to read early, which meant I taught myself a lot of words just from context.

So I was eleven before I realized the "armageddon" I'd been sounding out in my head was the same word grown-ups actually said out loud.

The adults laughed.

I laugh about it now, too.

That one cost me nothing but a little pride.

But some of the ways we're wrong cost way more, and those are the ones worth talking about.

Here's the thing nobody tells you: Living a long time doesn't automatically make you wise.

It makes you experienced.

And if those experiences are bad, and you process them badly, you don't get wiser.

You just get better at being awful.

Same reps, wrong direction.

Which is why learning to be wrong, comfortably, might be one of the most valuable relationship skills you'll ever build.

Right up there with learning to get rejected and actually surviving it.

Try these on for size:

"I don't know."
"I didn't know that."
"That changes things."
"You've made a great point, let me think about that."
"Tell me how I'm wrong."

None of those sentences will kill you.

But refusing to say them?

That could quietly kill your relationships, one unexamined assumption at a time.

Because you cannot change without first admitting you've been wrong.

You can argue "I wasn't wrong, there was just a better way," and fine, I'll give you that.

But you were wrong about your way being the best way.

And if you're not changing, you're not growing.

Humans don't get to just sit still.

I’m revisiting this writing from a piece I did in 2021.

Back then, someone I’d known for years gently corrected an idea I'd had about them, without even realizing they were doing it.

I was grateful.

It made room for something more interesting.

So I'll ask you what I then asked myself: What have you been wrong about lately that needs some fresh air?

If you want to talk through it, out loud, with someone who won't flinch, grab a free 15-minute Big Ask with me. We'll find the thing you've been quietly, comfortably wrong about, and see what changes when you finally say it out loud.

--
Rev Heather, aka Nookie, LUQ
https://my.curiouser.life
+1-855-712-5433 (toll-free)

P.S. No need for specifics, no names, no tagging anyone. Just hit reply and tell me: What's something you've realized you were wrong about?

I read every single one.