We tend to put a lot of pressure on ourselves to stick with the decisions we make.
Once we’ve committed to a goal, chosen a direction, shared a plan, or said yes to something, changing our mind can feel uncomfortable. We worry that other people will think we’re inconsistent, that we’re giving up, or that we didn’t think things through carefully enough in the first place.
I’ve definitely wrestled with this over the years.
There have been times when I knew something wasn’t working anymore, but I kept going because I had already invested so much time, energy, or emotion into it. Sometimes I didn’t want to disappoint other people. Other times, I just didn’t want to admit that I had changed my mind.
Through all of this, I’ve learned that changing our mind isn’t necessarily a sign that we were wrong. Sometimes it simply means we know something now that we didn’t know before.
We grow. Circumstances change. New information becomes available. Our priorities shift. We have experiences that give us a different perspective on what matters and what we actually want.
It would be strange to expect ourselves to keep making the exact same choices when we’re no longer the exact same people.
This comes up in leadership all the time. We make plans based on the best information we have, and then something changes. The market shifts, a project doesn’t unfold the way we expected, someone on the team offers a perspective we hadn’t considered, or we simply realize the original approach isn’t working.
There can be a temptation in those moments to dig in because we don’t want to appear uncertain. But some of the leaders I respect most are willing to say, “I thought this was the right direction, and based on what we know now, I think we need to do something different.”
That takes humility and courage.
Of course, changing our minds every time something gets difficult isn’t necessarily growth. Some things are worth sticking with, especially when they’re challenging. There’s an important difference between walking away because something is uncomfortable and changing direction because we’ve genuinely learned, grown, or recognized that something is no longer aligned.
Figuring out that difference requires us to be honest with ourselves.
As we move through the second half of the year, this might be a good time to revisit some of the decisions, goals, and expectations we started with. Not to judge ourselves for what hasn’t happened, but to get curious about what we know now.
Is there something you’re continuing to pursue mostly because you said you would?
Is there a decision you’d make differently today based on what you’ve learned?
Is there somewhere in your work or your life where changing your mind might actually be the most honest and courageous thing you could do?
We’re allowed to evolve. We’re allowed to learn new things, reconsider old assumptions, and make different choices when those choices better reflect who we are and what matters to us now.
Changing our mind doesn’t always mean we failed to follow through.
Sometimes it means we’re actually paying close attention.
