Here’s a question to ponder: What do you do when you find out what you believe isn’t true?

If you’re like most of us, you deny the evidence and keep on espousing that belief.

Let’s face it, there’s not a lot of evidence for most beliefs, but that fact doesn’t keep us from believing in them. We believe most things without evidence.

The hard question is the one asked at the outset: What do I do when I find out what I believe isn’t true? I submit that we initially get angry and defensive and those two behaviors will stay with us until we find another way to respond to the question.

There is no right answer, only ones that move you forward or keep you stuck. Reminds me of a story . . .

When I was in radio as a program director and consultant, part of my job was critiquing on-air personalities. From time to time I would encounter someone who believed they were God’s gift to radio who truly had no gifts. Coaching them up was always management’s first choice rather than firing them, so the process began. Ask any coach in any profession if they can coach someone who doesn’t think they need coaching. They will tell you hair curling stories about people who were filled with anger and defensiveness.

What facts are you not facing? Denying that they are there will keep your belief in place and your feet stuck to the floor.

Anger and defensiveness may be your initial reactions but are not productive responses to hang on to when you make a discovery of fact. Sometimes facts hurt and that can make us angry. The mistake we make is directing that anger outward at the messenger and not reflecting on the message.

Are you fighting with the evidence? That always results in a knockout. The trick is to get out of the ring when you come to your senses and find out what you can do when you find out what you believed isn’t true.

All the best,

John