Thursday, July 7, 2011

The need to be right syndrome . . . .

Have you ever seen the quote, "I'd agree with you, but then we'd both be wrong." I just recently came across that one, and it reminded me of a  situation in which I found myself bantering back and forth with a friend about something that wasn't even important, and certainly wasn't worth the friction that was beginning to build. In this particular situation, I honestly believe I wasn't wrong, but I was up against someone who would fight tooth 'n nail until the end trying to prove otherwise. I backed off fairly early in the debate, not wanting to ruin a perfectly good shopping trip. Using the above line might have been a lighthearted way to end that debate. Darn, it's just like me to think of these great lines AFTER the fact! Do you know someone who has an attachment to being right? I sometimes wonder what it would take for people to give up their need to be right. Sometimes I feel as though their desire to be right is quite possibly interfering with what it was you were discussing to begin with! I guess there are several explanations as to why some people just won't let it go, but I honestly believe that it's just a matter of a fragile ego not wanting to be seen as being vulnerable or imperfect. It's frustrating, and I don't mean to try and dissect the whole situation, but today I'm thinking that there is so much to learn, if we can just give up the need to be right.

"Confidence comes not from always being right 
but from not fearing to be wrong."
-Peter T. McIntyre

3 comments:

  1. I totally agree I have a friend with whom I have found myself in that very same situation a couple of times now. I knew I was right in both instances ( and one of them we were able to physically see that I was right ) but I don't like to make a big deal or keep pushing the point to prove it. Because you know that it is only 'ego' talking and who really wins in the end?

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  2. You're right, Kathie : ) .......no one wins.

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  3. Once you truly recognise it you can't help but see it everywhere, between everyone! It is bewildering to me!

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