We all have opinions about things in our life, but opinions don’t need to be fixed in stone. If it’s really just an “opinion”, you should be open and willing to change your mind if the facts point in a different direction.
In Mónica Guzmán’s book “I Never Thought of It That Way“, she says:
“Your opinion is not a final answer. It’s a snapshot of where your mind is right now. It’s not something you have to defend.”
You can choose to defend it if you want, but not to the point of ignoring other input.
Opinions are beliefs
That reminded me of a quote from Adam Grant’s book “Think Again“, where defense of beliefs can send you in the wrong direction. He said:
“Who you are should be a question of what you value, not what you believe.”
The worst outcome of this is when people equate their beliefs with who they are, and then defend them against all others. We often see this with political beliefs, where people refuse to back down.
A good way to look at this is to ask “what would cause me to change my mind on that belief?“, because there should always be something. When Trump supporters were asked this question back in 2019, 62% of them said there was nothing he could do that could make him lose their support. We all should believe in the political candidates that we support, but that support should never be unconditional. Case in point, there are some local candidates that I have very solid support for, but I could quickly create a list of things they could do that would cost them that support.
Support your opinions, but never close the door on them.
