I like to hold strong opinions, loosely. I don’t mean to suggest that I am flakey or that I am constantly vacillating. Instead, I am not afraid to change my mind and don’t feel embarrassed when I realize that what I originally thought wasn’t correct or what I think anymore.
As you know, I am obsessed with revolutionary history (be on the lookout for a post on how to see the history of Boston next week!), so you’d think I would have immediately loved the musical Hamilton when it came out. Instead, I listened to one song, decided that I didn’t like that the style of music didn’t fit the time period, and dismissed it.
Things changed this week. Majorly. I finished reading the book My Dear Hamilton and learned about Hamilton’s wife Eliza and was immediately interested in hearing more of their story – so I turned to the Hamilton Broadway soundtrack and fell in love.
It. Is. So. Good. Why didn’t I give it a chance before!? Why did I close off my mind without giving it a real chance? Why can’t I stop listening to Helpless on repeat and definitely scaring my coworkers with my facial expressions as I try to suppress my urge to sing along?
I don’t think I am alone in finding that something I once thought doesn’t hold true today. What’s important (other than working on being more open minded in the first place, of course) is quickly and easily admitting that our initial impressions were wrong and embracing that there is nothing wrong with changing your mind.
The story I shared is a low stakes opinion change, but there are other subjects that feel like they carry more weight. Whether it’s religion, your career, politics, or something else equally as important, I’ve found that people tend to respect you more when you humbly change your mind instead of stubbornly holding on to opinions you no longer truly believe in. And holding yourself back from making a change because of what other people may think of you is just silly.
There aren’t clear steps that I can give you on how to be comfortable changing your mind. Instead, you’ll have to take it case by case and remember that the best people can understand and move between ideals. Moral of the story is to happily embrace the music, especially when you didn’t like it before.
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