Daily Inspiration 9-24-10

"It is amazing what you can accomplish

if you do not care who gets the credit."

-- H. S. Truman

"Do you prefer to be right,

or that you be happy?"

-- A Course In Miracles

Being right and getting credit for something are not goals for me anymore. There was a time when I would "swim upstream" (one of my favorite topics) with people to convince them I was right or to demonstrate what I have done or accomplished. I guess you could say that I was a self-righteous do-gooder. I had always looked on recognition for accomplishment as critical to the success of the fact that I bothered to do a thing. If no one notices, what's the point? So, I would make a point of bringing up what I had done. Since they didn't notice and make a deal about it, they must have missed it, so I now have to resort to telling them. How sad.

Then, at the same time (and these go together like bread and butter), I was always trying to prove that I was right about anything and everything. It was a vain attempt to bolster my importance to others and myself. It was all about recognition that I was smart, or knew what I was doing, or whatever. Of course, I never was smart enough or recognized enough, so I kept up this process for years. It didn't get me anything at all.

Then I learned that key phrase that I've shared a few times before that was critical to me learning a better way: "there is no way. There is your way, my way and their way." This phrase really and truly helped me get a grasp on my self-righteousness and put me on a level playing field with everyone else in the world.

Truth is, we are all smart and we all deserve recognition and we all have something special to contribute. We all have a bounty of love. We can all choose to not have to be right, and to be open to others ideas, and suggestions. We can all give others credit in moving forward a project to move it along more swiftly and effectively if that will help us.

I now try my best to be real and to be loving and to care very much about other people and what they think and what they do and how they do it. And, of course, you know the moral of this story already. . . it makes a huge difference in me and brings me such satisfaction to be this way than the way I was for so many years. That alone, makes it worth the effort and any temporary sacrifice.

What do you think?

It's Not Who's Responsible or Who's Right That Matters So Much, But How You Choose To Feel.

Spread Some Joy Today--Let go of your need to be right or to get recognition. Better to have more fun and less stress, don't you think? What does being right really get you in the end?