Here’s Why It’s Okay To Change Your Mind On The Daily
This is for all of those who are in the “I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing with my life” club. I’m right there with you. I know I want to travel, climb mountains, be sustainable, grow my own food, meet new people, help others, hear stories, share my story, be physically active, take photos, take videos, feel creative freedom…and the list goes on.
I don’t know what your story is, or what you want to create but here’s what I have to say about it: IT’S OKAY TO CHANGE YOUR MIND.
I say this so strongly because it’s hammered down on those of us finding our way in life to “pick something and stick with it.”
Well, no.
I’m not going to pick something and stick with it. There are some people in life who at the age of 6 know they want to be a doctor and then become a doctor by the age of 27. That’s awesome! I’m genuinely happy for anyone who knows early on what their life calling is, or has such a clear sense of vision. I am not one of those people. I’ve always been a little unsure of how exactly to tackle the life of my dreams or even what the life of my dreams looks like. Everyday I’m figuring it out more and more. It’s the most beautiful process.
For me to figure out what exactly it is that I want, I HAVE to change my mind. I have to relish in the process, dig into myself, get to know myself better, and unravel my thought process. And I don’t owe an explanation to the world about each decision either. Within all of this super intense growth, is lots of change! I think that we should stop making people feel flaky or bad for changing their mind – and we should do the opposite.
This process should be celebrated. We should throw parties around changing our minds. It’s such a beautiful time of self growth and self discovery, why not?
To dig into this a little deeper, I’m going to share with you my personal story. It involved some super intense change I had going on this past September. I was traveling around the west coast by myself for a month in my camper SUV.
Prior to this trip I was: living at home, working at REI, attempting to save money, feeling really disconnected with myself. I had lost my direction. I had moved home a year prior from sunny Colorado to begin saving money to travel full-time but I was feeling super blah and unsure of where exactly this world would take me or why I would be doing that. At this time I had told myself and the people around me that my next plan was to stay with REI for a long time, and move up the ladder. This company is the most astounding company I had ever worked for and so that really did feel like a great goal for a while.
However, this trip ignited a fire under me. It made me realize that working in retail, even if the company is amazing, won’t serve me the lifestyle I want to live. Plus, I wanted to build a non-profit at the core of it all and I wanted to dig into those feelings even more.
[Introduce change of life plans for umpteenth million time here.]
In my journal, I wrote the following passages:
“What do I love?
• Human connections
• Storytelling
• Being active
• Learning new things
• Being outside
• Being creative
• Photography
• Traveling
• Helping people
I want to grow daily. I want to learn more about myself daily. I want to be creative and have the time to take on creative outlets. I want to help people – this world is not in balance and I have a desire plus the ability to help others not in my position. What can I do?
Do I stay in Iowa?
No, I can’t stay in Iowa. I need to be near the mountains or at least an ocean. I feel most connected with myself outdoors in those areas.
Do I continue working at REI and eventually move up that ladder?
Unfortunately, I don’t think I could see myself working for someone else forever. I have to eventually venture out on my own and create a lifestyle around doing the things I love every single day….Great…here you go again. Changing plans. You never have any focus. You’re so flaky and floaty. You tell people this is what you want and you can never follow through. You’ll never achieve anything if you don’t follow through.
FUCK THIS STORY.
Those thoughts are not me. Everyday, I am going through something new. I’m talking to someone new. I’m experiencing something new. To go into these with an open mind, is healthy! It’s so so healthy to change my mind often. This is the process of refining myself to be exactly who I want to be – to live in a way that is deliberate and caters to my highest sense of being.
If I never change my mind, I’m settling for mediocre.”
––
And the journal entry goes on. I was debating between college, moving to the west coast, working at REI, and traveling the world full-time. I went back to the decision of traveling full-time. I’m becoming location independent slowly but surely and truly creating the life I want to be living. I’m digging deep into myself to know my thoughts better, to myself better.
If I know myself to the core, I will be able to know others. If I know others, I will be able to exercise empathy from a genuine place. Having genuine empathy for those around me is the type of shit that changes the world.
So take it from me, someone who is figuring out what it means to navigate this world in a meaningful way, that it’s okay to change your mind on the regular. In fact, every time you do change your mind, it’s reason to throw a party because you should celebrate getting to know the realest version of you.
It’s one of the most beautiful things out there!