14. Are We Allowed To Change Our Minds?

I woke up some moments ago to a post on my B-School alumni group about how some companies have changed their minds regarding climate change and some CEOs quietly made changes despite screaming at press briefings to do quite the opposite. I was barely 30 seconds into the video when I decided to write immediately.

You see.. lately I have been in a place of intense self awareness where I kind of... meta view my own mind and I am realising that i think too much. In the process of having an idea a stance, a goal to reach etc, I think it through thoroughly - so thoroughly that i sometimes talk myself into doing it, lay out complete. plans on how to actually execute, even have an entire cover image on how to make it happen, then stop.

Literally freeze and do nothing.

For a long time I wondered about the box.

You know the one. The box that my parents sent me to school to fill so that I could specialise and finally become an expert and ultimately become a name that when people are talking about that box, my name would be the one they would mention.

That box.

Alas, my mind loves novelty and intellectual omnivorousness too much to just stay stuck in one career so I have had about 9 careers by now.

It makes for interesting conversation but obviously I have digressed as I usually do. On fluidity, my thought is this; in the process of being fluid and standing for something, could you potentially change your mind? For instance if I said today that i feel more people should mostly do experiential travel because it leaves the most memories and gives anecdotes etc - then tomorrow I become a social impact leader and decide more people should save the planet and i dont know maybe travel less because of carbon emissions (just talking out of my fingers here okay?)... is it allowed?

Are we allowed to change our minds? In business; can we? Can I be super fluid and change careers as often as I want to? See I just worry that there'll be no box and when opportunities surface I may have confused people long enough to not be trusted with any of the opportunities.

Are CEOs who have had a press release allowed to change their minds? I mean sure they need to stand for something especially when publicly traded else their companies would lose value. But hey, can they? PR stunts help in this regard I assume (think the tv series Scandal) but someone in the background always sees it for what it is. They have a new opinion and may have spent billions in that direction, fired people for it, made other infrastructural changes... and now a U-turn. sometimes changing our minds can be expensive.

The guys who said the earth was flat, (I should probably go research now but if I drop this typing I wont return to it so you do the research and tell me yes? deal.) were they the same ones who came back to say oh noo sorry world, actually it's not flat, it's spherical!? Were they? Because that takes a lot of guts. I doubt it though.

It makes me also realise now as I grow older and wiser (yes wiser hehe), that two things can be true at the same time. I used to be an extremist; when mobile phones first came out, once I felt my group of friends or contacts were not living up to my expectations, I would change my phone number and only re-tell those I liked at the time. So if you're my friend and have been since 2007 or so, well done you made it?

Back to my point, as I get older I realise I dont necessarily have to throw entire people away because of something they did. They can exist in my phone without me disappearing them completely. Don't throw the baby out with the bath water.

Don't get me wrong; some people are shitty. However wiser me says perhaps separate the person from the action and try to examine the intent from a different angle. I give more chances these days - I now acknowledge the existence of the grey so much so that I now tell my kids its okay to change their minds (that makes me smile - yes wiser see?).

Digressed again oops. Ultimately the question is this; the world needs thinkers yes. However the thinkers who take a stance and opine in public get crucified once an opposing stance comes or if the initial thinker gets seen or "caught" having/ acting/ doing anything that goes against that initial opinion.

Uproar! Scandal!

Maybe the answer is this.

Two things can be true at the same time. You can stand for something and still be the person who stood for something else before. You can change your mind and still be worth listening to. Maybe that is not weakness. Maybe that is just what it looks like to keep thinking.

And perhaps that is the beauty of the human experience.