Being Right Rarely Makes Us Happy
We make dozens of choices every day. Yet there’s no choice we make more important than this one: Do I want to be right or do I want to be happy? Too often in the past I’ve found myself making the choice to be right—even in the face of a reality that clearly told me I was wrong. Life wasn’t responding the way I wanted, my fantasies weren’t being indulged, life wasn’t treating me fairly and I wasn’t going to stand for it. Things had to be my way—the right way—or else. Unfortunately the “or else” only ensured that I would be miserable. Many people get stuck in believing that being right is going to make them happy. This is a warped fantasy in itself. A few years ago an anonymous lady came to me with a problem. She had learned that her husband had been cheating on her and she had made the choice to divorce him because she had a rule that she lived by faithfully. That rule was “If my husband ever cheats on me, the marriage is over. I will leave and divorce him” and she was...