“Maybe…”

Have you ever tried to convince someone of something? Anything? It’s damn near impossible, especially when you can easily find “evidence” online to support either side of a discussion. For instance, I am extremely confident that Earth is round but it wouldn’t take me long to find articles and videos from people trying to convince me otherwise. Opinions are funny that way because we typically craft them in a way that aligns with our deep rooted values and beliefs. This often happens unconsciously as a defense mechanism to lessen our cognitive dissonance.

Cognitive dissonance is basically that uncomfortable feeling we get when we experience conflicting information. On a daily basis we will literally convince ourselves something is true in order to avoid a mental breakdown or crisis of self. And this all leads us to the star of the show… 

MOTIVATED REASONING.

This is a phenomenon I learned about in one of my social psychology courses back in college and it changed my life in an amazing way. For the better part of my junior year I tormented myself with one word: Maybe. You see every time I had an opinion I believed to be true I would say to myself “Well, maybe you’re right”. I questioned most things I believed to be true and it was humbling to find that there were absolutely times when I was wrong and I even found myself standing on the flimsiest of arguments in order to defend myself. 

Fast forward 5 years and I still say to myself sometimes “Maybe”. Don’t get me wrong, I still hold tight to my beliefs and core values because I think they are what helps guide us in our lives. However, what I want to convey is that it is okay to be wrong. It is okay to lose an argument or hear someone’s reasoning and have a change of mind or heart. I would argue that admitting a fault is one of the more courageous things a person could do.

Stay humble and stay curious.