Letting go

Marshall pointed something out to me earlier, that really struck me.   He pointed out that I had not pursued something based on a response to a question I had asked.

What struck me was that the question I wrote down in my comment was not the question I had formulated in my mind.  It was close, but not exactly there.  

As I see it I had a couple of options, I could have assumed that the person the question was addressed to should have known what I really meant, as opposed to what I said.  But that would be inappropriate and unfair.

I could have taken another shot with the question I meant to ask.  But I had my opportunity and blew it.

Finally I could have hung on tight to what I said and defended it even though I know it wasn't what I meant to say.

I wonder how often we say something, realize that it's somehow not right, but remain so committed to what we said that we end up defending something that is really not defensible simply because we don't want to admit we misspoke.

This time, I think I made the right choice.  Admit my mistake, let it slide and move on.  I hope that I can do a better job of doing that more often in the future.