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“You have the right to be wrong” was a common expression of an old high school history teacher of mine. Some students hated this teacher because they thought he was lazy and a bit sadistic. He never lectured, nor did he ever seem to have a lesson plan prepared. He’d just sit back in his chair, sometimes putting his feet up on his desk, and then he’d ask probing questions and insult whoever attempted to answer them (usually for their lack of individual thought).

For homework he’d assign us lots of dry reading material, and then we’d have to write very brief papers on complex subjects, like a two-page, double-spaced paper about the causes of the Civil War. Believe me this is a lot harder than writing a 5-10 page paper on the subject because you have to choose your words very carefully. Otherwise you’ll run out of space before you make a dent in the topic. Two pages was the maximum you’d be allowed to write. If you wrote 2.1 pages, you’d fail the assignment. “Verbal flabbiness” wasn’t allowed.

Despite his lack of popularity, this teacher had the stated goal of teaching students to think for themselves instead of merely regurgitating information we learned elsewhere. This is tough to do with 17-year olds, especially with a subject like U.S. history.

I thought the expression, “you have the right to be wrong,” while usually meant as a joke in this class, was good advice. It’s not in the Bill of Rights, but perhaps it can be considered a basic human right. You have the right to be wrong. You have the right to make mistakes. You have the right to fail.

Many people don’t see the value in exercising this right, however. I think this is also a major component in the fear of public speaking. What if you take a stand on something, and you’re shot down, proven utterly wrong?

What’s so terrible about being wrong? If you’re never wrong, to me that indicates you aren’t growing. I hope that five years from now, I’ll look back on some of my blog posts from this year and disagree with myself. Otherwise it would mean that either I haven’t grown or that I was too timid in expressing myself.

Don’t be afraid to take stabs at the edges of your certainty. That’s one of the best ways to learn. Let others react to your ideas. Sometimes they’ll help provide new facts that can allow you to refine your ideas. Other times they’ll merely react emotionally which can help you become more resilient in weathering other people’s emotions. Don’t be afraid to put out your ideas in a conversation, a speech, an article, a blog entry, a forum post any communication where you can get feedback from others.

Take your ego out of the picture

I think people resist being wrong because they equate their ideas with their ego. So if their ideas get shot down, they treat it as a personal defeat they feel humiliated. The feedback from others may even encourage this reaction: “Boy, you really blew it tonight.” But just because others equate your ideas with your identity doesn’t mean you’re obligated to do so as well.

Over-investing your ego in your results is unproductive and unnecessary. If you think the failure of your ideas is a personal failure, you’ll take too few risks, risks that could ultimately pay off. But if you can learn to separate yourself from your ideas and your work and see them as something separate from yourself, you’ll feel you truly have the right to be wrong. If an idea fails, why not let it be the idea’s fault instead of your own? Allow your ideas to fail without turning them into personal defeat.

When I write articles or give speeches, I do my best to remove my ego from any attachment to the results. Ideas are ideas they are not me. Even if I’m relating personal stories, those stories are still not equal to the real me. They’re merely words. If I give a speech and get a lousy reaction, the reaction might be due to my lack of skill as a speaker. But again, my skills are not equal to the real me. My ideas and skills are merely possessions or creations, but they don’t define the real me. Thus, I never feel my ego is in any danger if a speech or an article bombs.

If an idea seems to really hit the mark, I don’t take it as a personal victory either. I just think… hey, that’s appears to be a good idea. If an idea misses the mark, I see if there’s any helpful feedback and then may refine or abandon the idea. Or it could be that I felt the idea wasn’t expressed well enough and missed its mark due to being poorly communicated. To me it’s all just feedback to create better ideas and to improve communication skills.

I think this attitude is what helps make it very easy for me to give a speech without nervousness and to write regularly for an audience of tens of thousands of readers. I feel it’s perfectly fine for me to be wrong. When discussing a complex subject like personal growth, there are many shades of gray. Despite all the knowledge and experience I have in this area, there’s no way I could ever hope to perfectly understand every facet of this vast field. Plus my communication skills are invariably imprecise. Effective communication requires a combination of logic and emotion, and those are sometimes at odds with each other and will impact different individuals uniquely. I know of no great speakers or writers who ever achieve unanimous agreement when they communicate anything of value. By keeping ego out of the picture, you can do as Winston Churchill suggested move from one failure to the next with no loss of enthusiasm.

How could you better exercise your right to be wrong? Have you been afraid to hit the gym because you don’t know what to do and expect that you will only look like an idiot? Don’t put your ego on the line remember that it’s only your skills that are lacking. You are not lacking as a human being just because you lack certain knowledge and skill. Where else could you take a stab at being wrong or ignorant where the only long-term consequence would be a bruised ego (and not even that if you leave your ego behind)?

You have the right to be wrong. Let your ideas fail, let your skills prove their inadequacy, and let your knowledge reveal its limits. None of that is the real you anyway.

When you fail you discover your boundaries. You map out the edges of your capabilities. And this allows you to eventually move beyond them.

Being wrong eventually leads to being right. And even where it doesn’t, it’s still a more interesting path than being nothing.

Copyright © Steve Pavlina

Steve Pavlina
Personal Development for Smart People
http://www.stevepavlina.com
http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog (blog)
http://www.stevepavlina.com/articles (articles)

Steve is intensely growth-oriented. He trained in martial arts, ran the L.A. Marathon, and graduated from college in three semesters with two degrees. He can juggle, count cards at blackjack, and make damn good guacamole. Steve is also a polyphasic sleeper, sleeping just 2-3 hours per day and only 20 minutes at a time. So chances are good that he’s awake right now.

In Corrogue I am amazed

I rise by the light of heaven to continue this amazing journey into love. There is no other journey quite like this. All of us are on this journey. Most of us, however, are unaware of this journey. Rather than enter this amazing flow of life we enter a maze of confusion.

There are mornings when I wake up feeling amazing. I feel delightful and full of the lightness of being. Often on such mornings I sing a favourite song. One such song is a song written by Paul McCartney. It is a song entitled “Maybe I’m amazed.”

On mornings like today there is no “maybe” about it. The energy in this body is flowing. It is fine and refined and there is a feeling of being blessed. As Mary Oliver in her beautiful poem “Wild Geese” advises, “The soft animal of this body” is allowed do what it loves. It loves this dance of life beyond the confines of “my life.” It loves the celebration that is already here.

In his song Paul McCartney sings “Maybe I’m amazed that you love me all the time.” When Paul McCartney wrote these lines he was in a bit of a maze. He was lost. He’d watched the Beatles disband. He wasn’t sure who he was beyond “Beatle Paul.” It was the love and support of his wife Linda that helped him move out of this maze of doubt and unknowing. He comes to know that he is enough beyond this role of a Beatle or any other role.

Still he does doubt.

This is indicated by the word “Maybe.” He just can’t quite believe how much this woman loves “him.” Is this not amazing? More amazing still is that this love is a personal love. This personal love is beautiful but still it is within time. The really amazing thing happens when you know that you are love itself beyond time. When you know that you are love eternal then the word amazing just does not really come close.

I know I am loved all the time. Beyond even this “I am” is the knower of love all the time. This is the amazing gift that we journey toward knowing. We climb the mountain of consciousness until we get a glimpse of the amazing being each of us is at heart. We are made in the image of God and God is Love.

Religions teach us that God is love but still we enter a maze of confusion.

We take these words to mind but they do not become our heart felt knowing. Rather than know that God is love we prefer to believe in God. We opt for the description rather than the amazing experience of going “beyond belief.” The words, “God is Love” have real meaning when you know. To know that “God is Love” is to know that you are Love. Not that you are loving but that you are love itself. No maybe. Only certainty. Only the essential knowing that you are the Blessing and it is here now.

Most of us are not prepared to know this.

We think it is arrogant to imagine that we can be at one with the Beloved. We forget that we are always there. We forget that we create this illusion of separateness we call “me” and “mine.” We forget who we truly are. If you knew, you too, would be singing “Maybe I’m amazed that you love me all the time.” You too would know there is no “maybe” about it.

In this knowing you are already enough. You leave the maze of confusion and doubt. You are no longer lost. You know you are the child of the Beloved now and forever. To know this is the journey of the soul. It is a journey from exile and the return to the homeplace.

So I go dancing this energy of my soft animal body. I listen to this morning breeze that has secrets to tell. It whispers in my ear. “You are amazing.” I wake up and I realise “I am.” This is enough.

Tony Cuckson is an Anam Cara. This Celtic term means “Soul Friend.” He specializes in providing insight for the spiritual journey, Blessings for YOU, words of wisdom and finding inner peace. Visitors to Irish Blessings Matter website and Tony’s Blog get the opportunity to develop a purpose driven life through articles, newsletters and other programs. Get your free report called “7 ways to it’s a wonderful life” at http://www.irishblessingsmatter.com/ or go to Tony`s Blog where you will find links to information related to spiritual guidance, spiritual coaching and spirit in business.

Every four years the world is given the gift of the Olympics. For a few weeks nations lay down their arms and come together to let their world class athletes compete on a level playing field to see who the best is in the many events. Such amazing athleticism was on display the past few weeks. It boggles the mind what these young men and women can accomplish with their bodies. Great feats of skill and determination bring them to the pinnacle of athletic achievement. Incredible.

As I think about what it takes to become a world class athlete capable of competing at the Olympic level, I realize that there are some foundational lessons for all of us to learn as it relates to becoming world class in whatever we set our hands to.

The secret of how these athletes became world class is found in the combination of two fundamental ideas: Desire and dedication.

A 22 year old man doesn’t simply wake up one day and find that he is on the Olympic basketball team. No, it started years before. In fact, it probably started when he was only six or seven years old. Maybe his father took him to a basketball game and that little boy said, “Someday daddy, I am going to be a basketball player.” That was the first sign of desire. Desire is key. World class people start with desire. They have to at some point “want it”.

But we all know people who dream of big things but never accomplish those dreams, don’t we? Why is that? After all, they have desire. They want it. But the engine that drives the dream is dedication. Desire tells you what you want, while dedication is what will get it for you.

Someone may see a young gymnast and say, “Wow, that looks easy.” What they don’t see or perhaps overlook is the years of practice. The years of getting up at 4:30 every morning and going to the gym before going to school. It is the
dedication of the young athlete, the many times of failing in practice, the many times of falling off the equipment and faithfully getting back on that turns a wisher into a world class doer.

A person with desire but no dedication will never achieve much. You must have the powerful combination of both.

So let’s take a closer look at each of these and gain some insight into what desire and dedication are all about.

Desire. There are three parts to desire:

. Dreaming
. The Vision
. Focus

First, is dreaming. Have you let yourself dream lately? Just sit down and begin to imagine all of the incredible possibilities your life could become? Spend some time just dreaming.

Next is the vision. Once you dream, you begin to cut back on all of the possibilities and narrow it to what possibility it is that you really want. You begin to create a vision for your life. You begin to see it as you want it.

Lastly under desire is focus. Once you have the vision, you have to really focus in on that dream. This is where you get really specific about what your life is going to look like.

Now for dedication. There are also three parts:

. The Plan
. Beginning
. Perseverance

First is the plan. Without a plan you will drift to and fro. You will certainly not carry out your dream if you do not have a plan. So write it down. Set your goals. Know what you want and how you are going to get there.

Second is the beginning. This may sound simple and yet it is simply profound. Many people have a dream and they even have a plan, but they never begin. So simple: Just start. The first step on the long journey is still just one step. If you have a dream and a plan, take a step in the right direction.

Lastly is to persevere. Every road to every dream has a section or sections that is hard to travel. Every great dream will encounter difficulty. The question isn’t whether or not you will encounter trouble, but how you will respond to trouble. Will you quit when the going gets tough or will you persevere? I have found that every successful person I know, myself included, has encountered problems along the way that tempted them to quit. Yet they persevered and achieved their dream.

Let’s take a look at the progression. As you do, think about where you are in the progression of becoming a world class dream pursuer.

1. Dream
2. Create a vision
3. Focus the vision
4. Develop a plan
5. Begin to pursue the dream
6. Persevere

Friends, I hope for you the fulfillment of every dream that you have. That is what life is about isn’t it? But to do so, I know that you will have to combine your desire with good old dedication. And when you combine those two, you will be well on your way to leading a world class life!

To Your Success,

Jim Rohn

Reproduced with permission from Jim Rohn’s Weekly E-zine.
Copyright 2005 Jim Rohn International. All rights reserved
worldwide. To subscribe to Jim Rohn’s Weekly E-zine, go to
http://Jim-Rohn.InspiresYOU.com

If you have read any of my other articles you will know that I was paralyzed by shyness most of my life up until about 10 years ago.

Some examples of how debilitated I was include:

1. As a young man I was terrified of speaking to girls.

2. My first date didn’t take place until I was 25 years of age.

3. As a medical student I would sweat profusely at having to interview patients.

4. I was tongue tied during my licensing exam as a physician.

5. As a psychiatric resident I would freeze up while presenting at rounds and at conferences.

And so on.

Quite frankly I’m amazed that I made it this far in my career.

All this time I searched high and low for strategies that would help me cope with this problem. I tried meditation, hypnosis, psychotherapy, EMDR, and pharmaceuticals etc.

Unfortunately many of these modalities either were only temporarily effective and/or were fraught with undesirable side effects.

It wasn’t until I did some serious thinking on the root cause of the shyness problem that I was able to develop a powerful modality that literally freed me from it permanently. This new modality is what I called the Mind Resonance Process(TM) (MRP).

MRP is administered over the telephone and basically helps one uncover and permanently release all negative beliefs, emotions, perceptions and memories that are in anyway contributing to the shyness issue.

After the MRP experience a person is completely and permanently transformed at an emotional, mental, social, physical and even spiritual level.

I now present at conferences with hundreds of people in the audience and I feel like it is where I was always meant to be.

MRP literally has the ability to free any individual from any emotional limitation quickly, easily and permanently. If you are suffering and would like to taste your freedom please contact me at the web link below.

Nick Arrizza M.D. is trained in medicine and psychiatry. He is an international healer, coach, speaker, trainer, author and developer of the powerful Mind Resonance Process(TM) (MRP). Web Site: http://www.telecoaching4u.com/IntroConsult.htm

The scientific revolution that started in XVII century has caused some illusions to many western intellectuals, that in the near future all secrets of the world will be discovered by the power of the main and experimental science. The worldwide recognition of the heliocentric Kopernik theory (Mikolaj Kopernik (1473-1543) the founder of modern astronomy) and then the discovery of new planets has been seized as a refutation of the astrology that traditionally used Ptolemy’s geocentric model (Ptolemy (367?-283?b. c.), astronomer and general in Alexander the Great’s army who succeeded him as ruler of Egypt (323-285 b. c.)) and only five visible planets.

As a result, by the end of XVII century in continental Europe the practice of astrology had actually come to nil. In England some astrological traditions continued and had not been stopped because in England the strong tradition of herb science included some astrological knowledge.

During this period of time society started to demand from astrologists scientific proofs of their astrology discoveries, no matter how paradoxical this sounds, because astrology is one of the most ancient sciences. At that time the definition of a science was extremely narrow. Everything that could not be proved “by a stick and a rope”, appeared unscientific. Those astrologists, who aspired to social acceptance, began to offer (and continue to offer until now) various rationalistic explanations of astrology. However in relation to the area of knowledge based on the ancient philosophical-religious concepts it turns out not so harmoniously.

At that time a lot of changes happened not only in science but also huge changes occurred in society by itself. The role of the astrologists in society changed too. During those years many astrologists were at the same time doctors, translators, and mathematicians. They were highly educated people. Their clients were the aristocrats and priests, those who ruled the world at that time. For example, one of the major representatives of the Medieval Astrology Guido Bonatti was nobleman by himself and he predicted to the priests the rank they can reach - bishop, cardinal or even Pope. He used to give advice to the members of the royal family and aristocrats about political, military, and state affairs.

Now the authority passed to businessmen more and more and the growing education among workers has given rise to popular astrology - that which now fills the last pages of many newspapers and magazines. The education system changed the orientation, now the basic were concentrated on engineers, managers, bankers, and the knowledge of languages and philosophies become less valuable and significant. And when in the second half of XIX century in Europe had began the next revival of astrology, only a few were capable of using the sources, and the majority of documents were still not translated from Greek, Arabian, and Latin.

Renewal of interest in astrology in the XIX century is caused substantially by skepticism of the existing theory that all of Mankind’s secrets are possible to explain by means of reason. The understanding of science began to extend gradually and as a result at the end of XX century nobody is surprise at such science like psychology - whose subjects and methods are in many cases very far from a rationalistic pattern.

Inspired by the social success of psychology, many astrologists of the XX century began to teach astrology by combining it with psychology. As a result psychological astrology was born. Psychological astrology focused, unlike classical astrology, not on the objective reality but on the emotional world of the person.

At the same time, by end of the XX century it has increased the interest to classical astrological works, to those methods and directions which have been hidden. Because of that a lot of astrological documents were translated from the Greek and Latin languages.

If you would like to learn more about astrology, especially mystical parts of astrology, visit the http://www.astrology-wisdom.com site.

Willie Krut is studying astrology and readily likes to share his knowledge. To subscribe to the free Willie’s Newsletter, visit http://www.astrology-wisdom.com.