3 Good Reasons to Change Your Mind
You’ve heard the inspirational sayings about getting started:
- The perfect time and opportunity never comes. Start now.
- A year from now you may wish you had started today.
- Your dreams can come true, if only you have the courage to start.
- The key to success is to start before you are ready.
As generic advice goes, much of the time these sayings are pretty good. Without knowing more information, moving forward is usually better than retreating.
But guess what? For all of these motivational phrases, you can substitute the opposite instruction (“stop!”) and they’ll be just as helpful.
- The perfect time and opportunity never comes. Stop now.
- A year from now you may wish you had stopped today.
- Your dreams can come true, if only you have the courage to stop.
- The key to success is to stop before you are ready.
These modified sayings might not get as many “likes” on social media as the others, but they should.
If you’re having a hard time getting started with something, maybe the answer is to stop doing something else.
Just stop! Just don’t do it. Just hold back. Something you’re doing now might be keeping you from something better in the near future.
To put this into action, it helps to get better at changing your mind.
What Are Some Good Reasons to Change Your Mind?
1. Because the facts change. You may have heard the saying, “When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do?”
This quote is attributed to a range of historical figures (John Maynard Keynes, Winston Churchill, Big Bird…) so at this point you might as well take credit for it yourself.
The point is that information changes over time in response to independent and dependent variables. An example: the weather forecast for the next day calls for sunny skies and not a cloud in the sky. But when you wake up, it’s pouring outside and the sun is nowhere to be seen.
Let’s assume you had planned to wear your summer loungewear and those shoes that look great but probably shouldn’t get wet. Will you proceed with the plan?
Of course not. You’ll switch to rainwear and boots. The facts changed, so you changed your plans accordingly.
2. Because you change. It’s not just facts that change over time—you do, too. Your goals, values, and priorities change. What was once important now takes a back seat to something new.
Therefore, if there’s a major part of your life or work that feels unaligned with the “new you,” why would you insist on continuing just because you once felt like it?
3. Because life is short. Another quote often attributed to Keynes (this time more correctly, it seems), comes from a statement he made in support of the government taking a more active stance in the economy.
Economists often talk about “the long run,” and Keynes was frustrated with the idea of waiting extended periods of time without intervention. In response to the long run argument, he pointed out: “In the long run, we’re all dead.”
If nothing else helps, reflect on your decisions with a view toward the really long run. If you’re on your deathbed, will the choice you’re facing now matter a great deal? If the answer is yes, it may deserve more analysis, or maybe it’s worth staying the course even if you’re not enthused with the current itinerary.
Otherwise, remember the lesson on perspective: In the long run, we’re all dead.
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