From the place where we are right / flowers will never grow

My teenagers love it when they find me goofing up and then I tell them I was wrong...and even better if I tell them they were right. Ha! And hopefully we can laugh about it—there's something about parents being wrong that seems to be innately funny.

But beyond that, I think cultivating a willingness to be wrong is so freeing. 

In my coaching training, one of the tools we learned was throwing out a hunch about the situation our client was dealing with and what we thought might be going on underneath what was being said. But then we were taught to immediately follow up our "hunch" with the phrase: "Tell me where I'm wrong."

I liked the pairing of these two things: A hunch about the deeper things happening and a real willingness to be wrong. 

It's strange at first, but then oddly satisfying to have someone say, Hmm...yeah, that's not quite right, it's more like this...

It's satisfying because it's honest and it means they feel safe and the entire process is clarifying—it's like the client can "push off" from what I've proposed and get some new traction or perspective. 

And sometimes we can't find the deeper truth without bumping around a little. So I go first and bump into a few walls. 

Most of us weren't taught how to make mistakes. We were taught only to avoid mistakes at all costs, which keeps us small and tight. 

I want to live expanded and loose. 

What do you think? I really would love to hear.  

With care,
Brianna

p.s. The subject line of this post is from the beautiful poem below by Yehuda Amachai about letting go of being right. I found this poem via the book Poetry Unbound by Pádraig Ó Tuama. 

top photo by Irina Spotkai