What’s in this issue:
💭 Thought: It’s OK to change your mind
📚 Read: Being Brave
😆 Today’s Laugh
And no, I most certainly did not try this with my own cat after watching this… 🙈
💭 Today’s Thought
At every stage of our lives we make decisions that will profoundly influence the lives of the people we’re going to become, and then when we become those people, we’re not always thrilled with the decisions we made. So young people pay good money to get tattoos removed that teenagers paid good money to get. Middle-aged people rushed to divorce people who young adults rushed to marry. Older adults work hard to lose what middle-aged adults worked hard to gain. On and on and on.
All of us are walking around with an illusion — an illusion that history, our personal history, has just come to an end, that we have just recently become the people that we were always meant to be and will be for the rest of our lives.
- Daniel Gilbert, psychologist
Our histories are filled with examples of us regularly underestimating how much we will change in the future:
When we’re 5 years old, we want to be bus drivers, construction workers, and police officers - but by our teenage years, we have a whole different idea of what we might want to do for a living.
When we’re 18, we pick a field of study in college and think we’ll have a career in that field until the day we retire — but after working in that field for several years, we’re no longer excited by it like we once were.
We develop friendships early in life that we’re sure will last forever — but then they fade away and new friendships form in their place.
In our 20’s and 30’s we work hard to achieve a certain lifestyle that we believe will bring us happiness and fulfillment — but when we get there, it doesn’t.
Who we are and what’s important to us fundamentally changes over time…
A younger version of myself would frankly not believe the place I’m at today. Similarly, I expect that an older version of myself will look back at me today and scratch her head at certain things.
It’s OK to change your mind, because you’re still — and always will be — becoming who you were meant to be.
🖊️ Today’s Reflection
If you’re new to journaling, I highly encourage you to read Nancy Adler’s article: Want to be an outstanding leader? Keep a journal.
This week, find a quiet place and gift yourself 10 minutes to reflect on any of these prompts (or invent your own!):
Describe the current chapter of your life: What’s the title of this chapter? What’s important to you now? Who do you get to be in this chapter?
Pick a time or two from your past and do the same exercise as above.
Make a list of times in your life — large and small — when you’ve changed your mind. What do you notice?
What’s something you’ve been resisting opening your mind to, or changing your mind on?
📚 Today’s Read
What does it mean to be brave? And, perhaps even more relevant, what does it mean to lead bravely?
Jerry Colonna explores answers to these questions — click here to read more.
See you next week!
xo,
Anne