Permit yourself to change your mind when something is no longer working for you. — Nedra Glover Tawwab

Permit yourself to change your mind when something is no longer working for you.

Author: Nedra Glover Tawwab

Insight: We're taught that consistency is a virtue—that changing your mind looks like weakness or confusion. But there's a quiet strength in recognizing when something has genuinely stopped serving you. A job that used to energize you becomes draining. A friendship that once felt easy turns one-sided. A belief you held for years doesn't fit your life anymore. The moment you notice this shift, something inside often resists: the fear of looking foolish, the sunk-cost feeling ("I've already invested so much"), the weight of what others might think. What makes this advice so practical is that it's not about being fickle. It's about being honest with yourself. Real change of mind usually takes time and repeated evidence that something isn't working—you notice it, doubt yourself, notice it again. By the time you're ready to actually switch course, you've already done the thinking. The harder part is giving yourself permission to act on what you already know. The payoff is freedom. Not in some abstract sense, but in the daily relief of not fighting yourself anymore. When you stop maintaining something out of stubbornness alone, you get your energy back. You get to build something new that actually aligns with who you are now, not who you used to be or who you thought you should be.