Wow, what a difference a week and a few days can make.
Last week I was on a high, celebrating 8 years of thoughts.
This week was low as I succumbed to being a victim and was planning on a thought to remind us all to be our word; to apologise when we make mistakes and to consider other people.
And yesterday that thought changed from being right to righteous as I checked my diary and to my horror realised I had done the exact same thing I was moaning about from others.
I completely missed an appointment.
Not just any appointment. It was a Weekly Thoughts coaching gift appointment. (My biggest apologies to Anthony!)
So this week we take a look at the difference between being right or righteous.
My Google search on the meaning of “righteous” helped me be able to explain it to you this way. “Righteousness stresses guiltlessness or blamelessness and often suggests the sanctimonious (making a show of being morally superior to other people)” (from Dictionary and Merriam Webster).
Ouch!
In my mind I was blameless and morally superior. One of my coaches missed an appointment with me, not once but twice. I would have been ok with it, except that each time I had gotten up especially at 4:30am for the appointment. On the second occasion, the assistant did send me a cancellation notice, however with the time differences (they are on the East Coast of America – 10 hours ahead of me), the message arrived in my inbox at 1:00am. And the worst part for me, there was no apology; no recognition of the inconvenience for me. In my mind I was right and justified.
The message in that regard is clear. Consider your audience and communicate in a timely way and let people know what’s going on. Apologise when you are in the wrong. Accept that you made a mistake and own it.
And then when I did the exact same thing, the universe slapped me in the face. OMG! And there it was – I wasn’t being right, I was being righteous, morally justified and without blame.
How about you?
Are you right or righteous?
If you’re right, go ahead and assert yourself and stand up for yourself, however if you think you’re right and without blame and insist on judging others whom you consider to be guilty, you might want to remember this saying I learned as a child, “He who is without sin, cast the first stone”.
Are you right or righteous?
