“Why should I ever feel or be beholden to a view or a decision that was made by me in the past, given it was made by someone who literally knows less than I do now?”

— Hank Green (Paraphrase)

This is a great quote, and a great continuation of the post from last week on being wrong.  For one, it provides another point of liberation when it comes to altering what we do in the world.

For two, and even more importantly, it provides a huge opportunity into defining who we are.  Because who we are – these identities we wear and present to the world – they are of our own creation.  They are the story we crafted and now live inside of.  They are born of decisions, often under duress, and based upon our knowledge and the breadth (or lack thereof) of experience in that moment when we were forced to make that decision.

We decide, we set our view, and we proceed into life that way.

But they are, and always remain, just decisions we made.  Inflection points.  And we can re-inflect at any time.  We can re-examine the decisions we made about ourselves, about others, and about the world, and in the light of day, today, this day, with all we have learned since then and all we have experienced since then, set aside what we decided and instead choose.

Again, it’s not that the decision back then was wrong.  Or even bad, per se.  It’s just the decision we made.  At that time.  With what we had and what we knew.

We’re not stuck with it, nor beholden to it.  We get to choose a new we.  And we get to choose that which brings us and those around us more freedom, life, love, self-expression, and peace of mind.