It’s Ok to Be Wrong

Chris Hannah encourages people to share their perspective:

By sharing your outlook, you’re opening yourself up to others. Which helps everyone keep a bit more of an open mind, and reinforces the fact that not everyone thinks the same.

There might be the risk of offending people, but that shouldn’t necessarily be a sole reason to stop doing something. Because by taking that risk, you’re expressing yourself. You might not necessarily be right about something, and you might not even agree with yourself in the future. But that’s fine, because opinions evolve, and perspectives shift.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot recently, and Chris’ article gave me that final push to get my thoughts organized on the topic.

For as opinionated as I am, I fear sharing those opinions most of the time. Because of the religion I was raised in, I got really good at sharing opinions on “safe” things. As you might know, I’m never shy about giving my perspective on technology, design and development, or things like movies and TV shows.

It’s fairly new for me, however, to have and express opinions about politics, LGBTQ+ issues, or even criticize my former religion. These are things I was raised not to talk about. I used to believe that God’s Kingdom was the solution to humanity’s problems, and therefore had never voted in an election before the 2020 primary.

I used to believe that LGBTQ+ people were practicing something that God hates, and would be destroyed because of it in God’s coming Judgment day. Up until two and a half years ago, I hadn’t stopped to ever question these beliefs.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that it scares the shit out of me to ever have beliefs like this again, so I’m naturally a bit fearful of expressing my opinions publicly. I also know that family and friends sometimes read these words, and aren’t happy to learn my new perspective on things.

But what I’ve learned in therapy, and Chris confirms above, is that it’s ok to offer our perspective. And it’s ok for that perspective to be wrong. For most of my life, I’ve seen many things as black or white; either something is right or it’s wrong. But life isn’t like that. Nuance is everything. Maturity in life is not having the “right” perspective all the time, it’s being open to changing that perspective when presented with new information.

My purpose has never been to offend or hurt people. This blog’s purpose is to be a record of me, how I’m feeling, and what I think about things for myself. It’s the journal I keep for future Tim to read. Sometimes our perspectives will align, other times we’ll disagree; and that’s ok.