It’s ok to change your mind

Rethinking our thinking

It seems to me that the ability to change your mind about something can be really useful.

At times I think about my nan refusing to talk to my aunty for 40 years because she didn’t like the man she was marrying. In the end, that man was the person who ended up caring for her in the last months of her life. Perhaps she thought that being someone who made a decision and stuck to it showed strength and integrity. But her inability to challenge her own beliefs and rethink who she was being stopped her from knowing my aunty, her husband, their four children, and their grandchildren. It’s a shame to get stuck in thoughts that no longer serve us.

Our thinking changes as we change

Rethinking our identities can be hugely challenging. We get attached to the idea of being someone who is this or does that. We form identities and think we can’t change them as we grow.

Deciding you want to be or do something else because it usually means you will lose something you once were or had. But you will likely gain a whole lot more, it’s just hard to see it — like driving in fog.

The path can change with us

We think that once we have picked a path, we must walk it. What if that wasn’t true? What if you could do something else that felt more meaningful to you today? What if you could reinvent yourself tomorrow? What if you could quit a career that no longer fulfils you? What if you could choose another path to explore?

In case you need to hear it

• It’s also ok to change your mind about something.
• It’s ok to change your behaviour towards someone or something.
• It’s ok to be someone new or do something else.

The real question is who do you want to become?

This post is part of a series of atomic essays on Twitter for #Ship30for30