How often do you argue with yourself?

If it’s never then perhaps you should think about doing so.

And I don’t mean argue with yourself out loud because you might run the risk of being locked up.

What I’m talking about is getting in the habit of taking the opposing position on one of your beliefs, ideas or thoughts.

Taking the opposite side can give you glimpse into why others don’t agree with you or see the world the way you do. It can also help you validate ideas more effectively.

In business there is a concept of pre-mortem and this is very helpful when it comes to new ideas. The objective of the pre-mortem is to explore reasons why an idea might fail. The pre-mortem shines a light on challenges and hurdles so that action can be taken to address issues should they arise.

There is also a concept of red teaming. Red teaming is similar to a pre-mortem except in this case there is team of individuals tasked with taking an adversarial stance against an organization in order to expose vulnerabilities.

You can use either one of these tactics for your own beliefs and ideas.

Being open to being wrong is one of the keys to personal growth. The fact is that you will never have all the right answers and when you learn to accept this your mind will be open to new ideas and options.

So learn to argue against yourself. It will help you defend what you truly believe and enable you to quickly discard ideas that are holding you back.

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