Facing Facts

As I shared with you in my last blog, Spaces In Between, last week I took a Clarity Break in Arizona. By a wonderful coincidence, the desert was blooming. A rainbow of bright colors sitting atop an unending vista of various kinds of drab cactus was a fitting landscape in which to let my mind roam freely.

By an unfortunate coincidence, however, my trip coincided with the Arizona presidential primary. There I was, contemplating the vastness of the spaces in between while a barrage of last minute candidate marketing was going on around me non-stop.

Since it was unavoidable, I decided to incorporate the political goings-on into my Clarity Break, believing that even such a heated, nasty brawl offered opportunities to expand my horizons. I carefully watched some commercials, listened to some candidate comments, read some punditry, and spoke about the contest with a few local people. What I learned was a lesson in the nature of clarity itself.

As I contemplated what I was seeing and hearing, I realized how devoid of real information it all was. Facts were mostly replaced by opinions and when supposed facts appeared in the candidate’s rhetoric they were totally inaccurate. These untruths were presented again and again as though repetition would make them true. It was as if pounding away on them would lead to people seeing truths where they didn’t exist.

And all too often…it works. Fabricated reality becomes the truth.

True clarity comes from seeing and understanding the facts of a situation unencumbered by beliefs that are inviolate. It means allowing facts to guide your decisions in spite of being bombarded by inaccurate information. It comes from having the willingness to evaluate everything and when you discover facts at odds with your ideas, to change your thinking.

I’ve always followed the idea attributed to John Maynard Keynes that “when the facts change…you change your mind.” But so many will stick with their idea no matter the facts showing their idea to be incorrect. They dismiss the new facts. Their mind becomes frozen, unable to grow as new information appears that challenges their thinking.

It happens everywhere with perverse consequences. Politicians get elected based on their promises that prove to be based on ideas and information so inaccurate that they’re impossible to implement. And then blame the failure on others.

Business leaders pick the ideas they like and discount facts showing them to be untrue. When the implementation fails…they blame it on others.

Take the issue of climate change. You can see with your own eyes that the climate is changing, or ask any farmer or Miami resident. And yet there are many who claim it’s untrue…jus a conspiracy for some nefarious reason.

For most of us it’s easier to dismiss the facts and even the evidence of our own eyes than to face up to being wrong. We pay a huge price for this unwillingness to accept that we are mistaken…

Take a Clarity Break. Clear your mind, evaluate your beliefs, accept new ideas, throw out the trash, and return to greater success.

Or drown as the water rises.