I watched someone walking the other day. He was an older gentleman and he looked like he had somewhere important to be.
With head down, he moved across the road in a crosswalk. He clearly had the right to cross, but the car that was coming felt otherwise. It was a narrow miss.
He was outraged. He swore, shook his fist, and let the driver know that he was wrong not to stop. Angry man was right – the onus was on the driver to stop and give pedestrians the right of way.
But would it matter who was right if there had been impact? Angry man would have been lying there, broken or worse, correct in his assessment of the situation but wrong in outcome.
Sometimes, being right isn’t the most important thing.
In reality, does being right guarantee anything? And do you know for sure that you are right?
Sometimes we go through life with convictions that are so strong within us that we walk with our heads down, oblivious to what may be going on around us and what dangers are lurking.
We have many beliefs, but we truly know so little about the way the world works. There are unseen forces that keep everything working smoothly, all outside of the ability of any of us to control them. Your own body goes through countless processes in every second without you knowing anything about it that keep you alive.
The beliefs we develop become the things we know. We know that life is hard, or conversely we know that we get everything we want. We know how to manipulate the system to benefit us, or we know that the system persecutes us and keeps us poor.
Beliefs are formed by our environments and how they affect us. If you are a wealthy heiress, born into a life of opulence and riches, then your beliefs are likely vastly different than those of a child who is born to a drug-addicted mother in a big city’s inner core.
Beliefs are a very subjective thing.
So much of who we are is formed long before we have the ability to process things rationally. When just surviving is your daily goal, the idea of reaching your full potential or helping others to reach theirs seems trivial.
Once you know something, everything in your experience will line up to prove you right.
Your knowings become your life.
You will emit a certain energy that will then attract people and experiences to you that reinforce your knowings. When you know that life is difficult, that jobs are scarce, that the economy is terrible, that someone is always out to get you, then that is your destiny.
You may be right. You may be correct in assuming that as you cross the road, the cars are supposed to stop. But if they don’t, then it really doesn’t matter how right you were.
What beliefs are you holding onto that don’t necessarily support you in where you would like to go?
There are lots of examples of people who came from poverty and were able to create a life of luxury for themselves. There are also many examples of those who had every advantage and lost everything.
It has nothing to do with outside circumstances. It has everything to do with what you think you know.
Even during times of economic depression, some people are able to build fortunes. They don’t demand that things outside of themselves be a certain way; instead, they look at how things are and then devise a way to make it work for them.
When you hold on to beliefs that limit you, that cause you to be less than who you can be or to live a life that is a constant struggle, maybe it’s time to challenge what you think is true.
Believe that within every difficulty there is a way to profit whether in material success or personal development.
Know that as long as you stay flexible, you can adjust to any situation and make it work for you.
Even when you have the right of way, lift your head up and be aware of what is around you. Being right can sometimes end up being very wrong.