It is a simple fact that people change and grow over time. Have you ever been aware of your personal change, and jettisoned beliefs about yourself?
These changes can be something simple and straightforward. For example, later in life you might grow to like a food that you couldn’t stand before. Your belief about yourself (i.e. “I don’t like tomatoes”) might need to be amended, or even dropped.
But sometimes, the belief in question might be quite abstract, or even key to your concept of self. As you age, cornerstone beliefs, like political party, religious affiliation, or career aspirations might need to be tweaked. Some might even require a complete overhaul.
Listen to a podcast where Michael and Lee discuss a related question: ‘What beliefs do you have that might be wrong?’ We also discuss a bonus question: ‘What makes a place feel like home?’
An extreme example of this would be a belief that you felt was central to who you are, one that you swore repeatedly would never change. And yet, over time, as your experiences increase, you attitude might shift subtly at first, and eventually become completely different. Has this ever happened to you?
Introspection can be a valuable tool in your mental health tool kit. Knowing what you believe in, and periodically reviewing those beliefs, can lead to your being honest with yourself. It might also lead to a mo0re fulfilled life.
Do you have any beliefs about yourself that have changed over time?
Related questions: How have you changed? What makes you you? How can we encourage meaningful conversation? What is necessary to change your mind?
My obituary will likely not include the line: “He helped end homelessness in Minnesota,” as I have long hoped for and believed it could.
I believe ending homelessness is possible. And we know that preventing homelessness is less expensive than letting it happen. If our local, state, and federal governments played a more constructive role (pun intended) in subsidizing, incentivizing, and building enough housing affordable for its lowest-income members and included more proven supports for those who need it as part of a working social safety net, we could end homelessness.
From various work positions, I have advocated for measures to help and keep people housed from a policy standpoint. Most of the time, my efforts have been successful; sometimes not. But very little that I have done has impacted a failure of mainstream systems: they often neglect the needs of lower-income members. Thus, we have siloes in our local, state, and federal programs and the general economy that most people get help when needed. But our lowest-income members must desperately compete for housing and supports through separate systems from the rest of us. These programs are are often developed at the point of either preventing homelessness or assisting people who have fallen into homelessness to get out.
As I noted, this approach costs more and is much less effective. Regrettably, my advocacy (with thousands of others across the nation) has not been able to crack that nut. As a result, our the number of people experiencing homelessness has grown dramatically. As time goes on and I get closer to retirement (still several years out), I don’t see how I/we can accomplish our goal of ending homelessness within the timeframe where I can say or my obituary will read, “One of Michael’s life-long goals — that he played a role in ending homelessness in Minnesota — was a success. This is a goal he is both grateful for and was proud of.”
Despite this, I will continue to strive to achieve this goal, again, with thousands of others working to end homelessness.