Never give up your right to be wrong.- Paul Carrick Brunson

Why is it good to be wrong? Because if you let yourself off the hook from trying to be right all the time, you can reduce stress, ease your relationships and enjoy your life. When you’re right, everyone and everything else is wrong if they don’t meet your rules. When you’re right, you miss the opportunity to see the world in a different light. When there is the possibility that you can be wrong, you are more open to other ideas and ways of doing things. The possibility of being wrong creates space in your life to do something differently. What if someone else knows better than you? What if their way of doing it could be a better way? It allows you to let go and allow someone else to take the burden from you.

Back when I was trying to be a perfectionist, I suffered because I felt like everyone else had the right to mess up but I wasn’t allowed. I took on the persona as the one that always does the right thing at the right time. I am still often doing the right thing, but now, my definition of right is not as stiff. I’ve expanded it to include some things that others might not agree with. See, I learned that the key to stop being a perfectionist was to stop caring what others think. Once you let go of public opinion and live by your own opinion, the world is a different place.

Here’s what I know: It’s that I know nothing at all. I am constantly learning. I’m going to have to make lots of mistakes, failures and take risks. You can’t love without the risk of being hurt. You can’t live if you’re scared of dying. You can’t get the fullness of life if you are always looking for all the limits. We each have the right in our life to completely fuck up from time-to-time. The great thing is that you can start over and try again as long as you have breath.  No one hasn’t made a mistake in life so ignore anyone that tries to make yours bigger than theirs.

Recently, I was studying about the stock market and learned that the stock market goes in a cycle. It goes from despair to hope to growth to optimism and back to despair to continue again. It doesn’t stop people from playing. In fact, it inspires them to take the risk and reap the rewards. Maybe life is like that too.  Instead of trying to live in a way that prevents it, why not just recognize and accept it. Sometimes, you’re going to make a bad investment. You’ll choose the wrong person to love. You’ll pick a job you hate. You may even screw up as a parent or as a kid, but eventually, things will bounce back and you can try again. Sometimes, the mistake leads you to the thing that you wanted and if you never made the mistake than you would never have found it. Take a moment to think about some of your mistakes and see if you can make the connection to something wonderful that happened because of it or how it allowed you to be there for someone else.

“Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming “Wow! What a Ride!”― Hunter S. Thompson