How to Pull Your Foot Out of Your Mouth

Speaking from experience, and not the previous post, I am familiar with pulling my feet (not only foot) out of my mouth. While I try not to make a habit of it, I don’t mind being wrong, which sort of makes me an expert at pulling my feet out of my mouth.

First thing’s first. We must learn not to take ourselves too seriously. You know… pull the shade some on the ego.

Generally, and this varies from personality to personality, having to publicly remove your foot (or feet) out of your mouth can be humiliating. However, realizing that everyone makes mistakes is what makes it easier to not flush as badly. And yes, I'm purposely skewing up the grammar. The point is, you could even wend up becoming a pro at this sort of thing too.

Just imagine, for humor’s sake, like who in the jell knows everything? Do you want to be that person? Who knows e-v-e-r-y-f-r-e-a-k-i-n-g-b-l-a-s-t-e-d-t-h-i-n-g? Do you really aspire to be known as a know-it-all?

Resist the inclination to make excuses, get angry, or argue, trying to soften how wrong you were. [INSERT: This in no way is to be construed with loving a good debate. Debating has nothing to do with proving oneself right or wrong. Good healthy debates comes with the writer/writing territory. More on that in another post.]

Back on topic. Instead of extending the embarrassment by making excuses, getting angry or arguing a point where you clearly know you are wrong, simply smile, or chuckle, and wipe the sweat off your forehead realizing how close you came to be viewed as a know-it-all.

Short True Story…

One day my son came home telling me he needed a scientific calculator. Back then the calculator cost over $100, more than I wanted to afford, particularly when I believed it was ridiculous that a child in high school would need an apparatus that expensive for class. In my day our parents didn’t have to buy equipment that expensive. We learned to do complicated math using our head, hands and a pencil with an eraser on a piece of paper. What in the devil was the world coming to?

So I told my son he didn’t need a calculator, and to my chagrin proceeded to show him how adept I was at solving basic math problems, the root of all math…I added… without a scientific calculator.

“Now, check that with your regular calculator,” I told him, showing him my swift hand and pencil math computations once I was done.

He did check his regular calculator…and guess what? Yep, I forgot to carry a one and had to pull, not only my foot out of my mouth, but my wallet out of my purse to buy that darn scientific calculator. Man! Talk about putting your money where your mouth is!