It’s very hard to give up on your beliefs. Some beliefs are helpful and healthy. For example, believing that people are essentially good-natured. Others threaten the very ground we walk on. For example, believing that company leadership is a bunch of evil overlords conspiring to squeeze out every drop of sweat from the workforce. What makes it worse is the tendency to dump, discard, or dispose of anything that threatens your beliefs, all the while only collecting those things that affirm your beliefs. It’s called confirmation bias. It takes real fortitude to sit in the chair of a belief that is at the opposite end of the table from what you believe. Beliefs are subtle and hard to recognize even when they come roaring out of their fortified lair. Challenge your beliefs and test them constantly because they could be lying to you.
“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.”
—F. Scott Fitzgerald