by Rev. Elizabeth Rowley,
Spiritual Director
June 14, 2109
Do you want to be right, or do you want to be happy? Asking yourself this one simple question can save you time and energy that can be used to create what you deeply desire for yourself and your life.
Some of us were raised with the need always to be right, or maybe you know someone who is always right, or, at least they think they are. Getting caught up in the need to be right has one pay off, which is that you get to be right. The cost is very high if your single goal is to be right — loss of affinity, isolation, disempowerment, inauthenticity, and so on.
The need to be right usually occurs on an unconscious level and tends to dictate how you move through the world. Once you become aware of this habit, which you likely picked up from your family, community, or society, it will no longer run you or your life.
With this new awareness, you now know what you didn’t know, and you can make a conscious choice between being right or being happy — being right results in temporary happiness. True happiness comes from the deepest place within you as the result of your being satisfied with the finished kingdom through which you walk. Living your life from an authentic, empowering, connected, and loving context is a much stronger foundation to move through the world with.
It takes practice. As you slowly begin to loosen your mental grip on the need to be right, transformation occurs. You’ll start to notice the areas in your life where you’re putting too much of your precious time, energy, and effort into making yourself right.
Without the need to be right, you have created freedom. This freedom is the fertile ground for your mental and creative energy to imagine and breed greater possibilities in your life, rather than the mediocre satisfaction that comes with being right.
No longer are you a hamster running on the wheel of, “I need to be right,” wasting your one precious life. You are now free to talk about your dreams, your ideas, your vision. What do you love about your life as it is today? What would you like to experience in your life? Where have you been, and where are you headed?
The artist, musician, speaker, writer, philanthropist, or you name it which is within you and has been waiting to come bursting forth into existence through and as you now has an opportunity to do so. Doesn’t this idea spark joy, and uplift you? I believe it’s time to “Marie Kondo” your need to be right. Time to release this energetic, mental usurper which is no longer serving your highest and best good.
Do you want to be right, or do you want to be happy? Choose happiness and be amazed at the transformation you experience for yourself and your life.
And so it is.
