Are you afraid of being wrong?

I definitely am.

Life is all about change. Everything in this world is temporary and transitory — including who we think we are — and boy that can be hard. Our brains want safety and certainty. We want to KNOW what’s going to happen next.

Our brains are “prediction machines.”

Now here’s something really cool — We learn when our predictions are wrong.

What?!

It’s true!

And here’s something else to chew on. If we want to make lasting changes, if we want to improve and grow, we need to be willing to let go of parts of “who we think we are.”

Any lasting change requires a change in our identity. That’s why when we carry around beliefs about ourselves like, “I’m not an athlete.” Or “I’m bad with money” or “I’m not a leader” we make it impossible to become those things. Those qualities don’t fit into our identity — an identity WE have created for ourselves within our own brains.

The good news is, we can always change our thoughts about ourselves. We can think:

“I can become more athletic with practice” or

“I can learn to be better with money, I just need to ask for help from people who know more about money than I do” or

“Anyone can become a good leader with practice. Who are some leaders I admire and what qualities do they possess that I want to cultivate in myself?”

More than anything else — we are the ones holding ourselves back. That means we are also the ones who can set ourselves free.

Personal change, growth and learning require our willingness to hold “who we think we are” loosely.

We need to be willing to be wrong.

We have to be able to tolerate the realization we didn’t know as much as we thought we did.

But every day, if we’re open to it, we can get it wrong and learn from it.

Growth and evolution isn’t a shameful, embarrassing thing. It’s what living life is all about!

We are all in a constant state of becoming. Who do you want to become? What does your future self need you to do right now to make that happen?

Just keep taking that next best step.