Why Spending a lot of time wrong about something doesn’t make it right…

Spending a lot of time wrong about something doesn’t make it right…

The statement above may be a bit confusing after the first pass, but if I explain, it all makes sense. Recently I found myself dealing with a personal business related issue in which I was being (over?) charged for some services I had received in 2015. There was so much back and forth between the company and I that it had become a bit of a quagmire. I had spoken to several customer service representatives pertaining to fixing the matter, only to be transferred and detoured, while still not having the issue solved to my satisfaction. Meaning no one had made me right, and they couldn’t provide adequate proof that I was 100% wrong.

The entire time this issue persisted, I had held a personal truth that I was right and they were wrong. Each time I approached the situation with a new representative, I didn’t ask them to tell me what they thought, I fed them my truths, which was that they were wrong and I was right. I held this conclusion very dear to me, over the past few months it had grown to become a large part of my thinking. It gave me solace that in the end, I would be redeemed. I thought about how right I was constantly every time the matter reared its head in my overactive psyche.

Needless to say that today, I spoke to the exact person I needed to. He was poised, logical and efficient; a few of my favorite characteristics. It didn’t take long for him to return back to the line with an exact play by play of why the charges were valid. It finally made sense. My only reaction was, “oh…” A part of me was hurt that my truth was wrong and another part of me was relieved that I could finally move on. I thanked him for the clarity, looked at the account online once more and said to myself, “well that’s done…”

Although I readily left it behind there was a gaping hole in my thought process that wanted to hold onto my truth even though I now had positive proof I was wrong. This brought me to tell myself that, “spending a lot of time being wrong about something doesn’t make it magically become right…” Now I could rationalize why I still think I’m right even with full clarity, but who would I really be fooling? And how much time would that be wasting?

This reminds of how as human beings, were are often faced with truths we don’t care to see and its mostly because we put too much stock into how long we’ve been on the wrong path. I find that if you are ready to see a situation exactly for what it is, even if it goes against everything you’ve held dear, everything you’ve been taught to believe and everything you’d sworn to live by, you become a BIG person and no longer a little person with a BIG ego.

We can force it, fight with it, struggle with it and flat out deny it; but after all of that is over, the truth that was always there will still be there. I was always wrong about my assessment of my account with the business I mentioned, and it was hard coming to terms with being wrong for so long. But just because I sat with my falsehood, and got cozy with it, doesn’t make it any less wrong than it was, is and always will be.

Humbly,

~Jameelah

www.JameelahRaoof.com