We change throughout our lives, but somehow it has become a little taboo to change one’s mind. If someone changes how they think about something, they are sometimes referred to as being “woke,” which is conveyed in a negative light. But the idea that changing our minds about a topic or situation shows weakness or a lack of confidence or even a lack of intelligence is silly, really.
While many of us might say we’d like to go back to childhood when we had no responsibility, most of us would not want to go back to understanding things as we did when we were children. What we want is not to have to pay bills, to be more free with our time, and to not have our knees hurt, but we don’t want to go back to the lack of understanding we all experienced as kids. We like the mental and emotional growth we’ve experienced becoming adults. We like having a clearer perspective on how the world works and the confidence that comes with having some age and experience under our belts.
This is sometimes referred to as a growth mindset. The skill of being able to grow, gauge, make adjustments, and adapt. It is not only a positive trait, it is crucial to human survival. In a past article we talked about things you can do to step out of your comfort zone and widen your circle here.
We absolutely should change over the course of our lives and we have changed over the course of our lives. We know the value of it. We understand ourselves and the world better. We feel our enhanced perspective- all by itself– is an achievement. That’s growth.
So why would we want to stay stuck in a state of mind that never changes about various topics, from sports to education to health to art to politics?
Imagine what life would be like if people had never expanded their understanding. We wouldn’t have antibiotics, cars, airplanes, houses with central heating and cooling, indoor plumbing, movie theaters, radios, cell phones, cancer treatments, antidepressants or three hundred flavors of ice cream.
Changing our minds isn’t a bad thing, especially if we’ve done the critical thinking that is necessary to formulate our adjustment. Have we read widely and from different perspectives? Have we talked to others or written about the ideas in our heads to work through how we feel about them? Have we considered the pros and cons? Have we looked to history to learn from other people’s mistakes? Changing your mind can be truly beautiful.