Potentially rambling about quitting, diversity of opinions and generally listening to yourself and others.
Quitting in the world of “let’s do everything” “generation hustle” has a bit of a bad reputation. I even follow a youtube channel about one of my favourite sports which one of the mottos is “We don’t quit”. But I think in today's society we need to start to differentiate between quitting and changing your mind or actively deciding that something is not right for you - maybe at that moment, maybe never was.
A couple of years ago in the mist of the covid pandemic I quit my masters. This is something that many people did find surprising because most that know me know about my eagerness, drive and discipline. But I think part of that mindset, the mindset of understanding yourself and sometimes exploring your limits it’s also understanding when you have changed your mind or it’s not the right time. It actually takes strength, character and self awareness to know when to stop or quit.
To change your mind is a very important practice. I heard from many people: I never change my mind. For me this is very worrying, because it means that this person is not accepting that they might be wrong, that other point of views might be also valid or in general this person has zero curiosity. I have changed my mind about many topics, and I love when someone changes my opinion about something, those switch aha moments. At the same level, I love that I change my mind about things and I can evolve.
Looking at this from a professional perspective I have been always concern about people that comes from a doctrine of the right thing, those that preach without listening and that believe that right and wrong are applicable in most of cases…because in many cases is not right or wrong it's actually an idea or decision taking with a context and with background. When people don’t engage in curious conversation they might not understand the context or background of a decision, and for me even when disagreeing, understanding the thought pattern or how someone arrived at an idea is even more important than the idea itself. It helps me understand the way that individuals think and then allows me to connect better through communication and ways of thinking.
Many times by not agreeing with someone but truly trying to understand their point I have enriched my own opinion or understood more where the other person was coming from. Something that I like about product, agile and software teams is: when there is a flat structure of feedback and we get to share our opinions and understand the thought pattern of how we go there. I also like that sometimes we completely drop and quit an idea or an approach even after investing in it, if we think that is the right approach. We actively quit. It’s a brave action to know when to quit. To know that it’s ok to make mistakes, and to learn about them and have the resilience to evolve from them.
So yeah, “quiet calling yourself a quitter” it’s part of the process and part of life.
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