Changing Your Mind Well

Changing your mind is a skill, not a defeat. Good thinkers do it when the evidence changes. The skill has three parts: noticing what would count against a belief, saying so when it does, and keeping the new view as loosely as the old one should have been held.

It is easier when you have named the exit in advance: “I will change my view if X.” It is easier when you can separate the belief from your identity. And it is easier in public when others treat a change of mind as honest, not weak. You can help by doing that yourself.

Change does not mean giving way to whoever pushes hardest. A change of mind should follow a reason. Say what moved you, thank the source, and let the new view earn its weight over time.

The revised forecast

A coach predicts that her young team will win the league. After the first month they have lost half their games, and two parents explain what is wrong with the practice schedule. The team waits to see what she will say.

She tells them her forecast was too high, names the two reasons that changed her view, and sets a smaller target with a date to check again. The team trusts the new target more than they trusted the old one.

Try this today Write one belief and the evidence that would change it, then look for that evidence this week.