For a lot of my life, I had a very strong attachment to being right. I didn’t realize it, but it aggravated friends and family. I couldn’t see it, because I was so focused on being right.
Have you noticed this need to be right in yourself? If so, you might reflect on what it feels like when you notice it in others.
Along the same lines, I often feel the need to act like I know what I’m doing or what I’m talking about. This gets in the way of learning from other people, or letting myself be a beginner who doesn’t know what I’m doing. It also … tends to be aggravating to people around me!
Do you notice your need to look like you know what you’re doing or what you’re talking about?
I don’t have the answers to these things … but I find myself practicing letting go. The need to be right or know things feels like tightness in my body. Letting go feels like relaxing that and not needing to appear any way to anyone.
What I’m left with is a more vulnerable place of not knowing. I don’t know if I’m right, I don’t know what I’m doing, I don’t know much at all. But I’m open.
Let me admit I’m not always in this place of not knowing. I still have my attachments. That said, I find it much more interesting to be in the not knowing.
Would you be willing to be in that too?
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This post was previously published on Zen Habits. Uncopyright courtesy Leo Babauta.
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The post The Need to Be Right or to Know appeared first on The Good Men Project.
