Standing firm while a whole crowd disagrees with you is scary. Checking you’re right first makes it easier.
RESILIENCE
WHAT THIS MEANS
Holding a minority position is bearable when it rests on something solid and unbearable when it rests on stubbornness. The difference is the work you did beforehand. Having checked, you can stay steady under pressure because you are defending a conclusion rather than your ego.
Before you dig in, go looking for the strongest version of the other side and see whether it moves you. If it does, change your mind early and cheaply. If it does not, you can hold your ground calmly, and calm is what makes a lone position persuasive.
A QUESTION TO SIT WITH
When did you hold a position the whole room rejected?
MORE IN COURAGE & RISK
- Bravery rarely feels heroic. Usually it feels like shaky hands and a dry mouth and doing it anyway.
- Walking back into the room after you embarrassed yourself is the hardest door you’ll open all week. Open it.
- Learning to swim at nineteen with little kids in the next lane is braver than half the stunts people post.
Free, with nothing to buy inside it.