You Don’t Need a Verdict to Make a Choice

By now, we should all know that life is not black and white. The world operates in gray areas. This isn’t always the most satisfying truth for our minds, which love a juicy, dramatic story.

When it comes to making changes in our lives, we often believe we need to prove that something or someone is definitively bad before we are allowed to change the circumstances. The job must be toxic enough. The relationship must be harmful enough. The habit must be destructive enough. We must be exhausted enough.

If we can build a convincing case, the choice feels justified.

But curiosity can give us enough information to choose what supports us without constructing a case for punishment. Not everything has to be bad to be wrong for you. Something can have been right for you once and no longer fit. A person can be doing their best and still be unable to meet your needs. You can value the time you spent somewhere and decide that you don’t want to spend any more of your life there.

You are allowed to make a change without finding a villain. A choice does not have to become a verdict about the past. It can simply be a response to what you know and need now.

Once we decide to make that change, another challenge can arise.

Surprise! It’s judgment.

We rip into ourselves and reflect poorly on all the choices we made before we knew better. We look back with the information we have now and condemn the versions of ourselves who didn’t have access to it yet. Because those past versions are still part of us, we end up passing judgment on our current selves, too.

I could write an entire post about honoring the past versions of yourself, and I will. But the point here is to shift the question from What is wrong with me? to What choices would support me now?

We can reflect on our past choices with kinder eyes and use those reflections to make new decisions based on what is working, what is sustainable, and what aligns with our values.

The practice becomes making practical adjustments without turning them into moral judgments. Instead of judging first and asking no questions later, we can do things like:

– Rest without proving we are exhausted enough to have earned it. (Capitalism)

– Change a habit without hating the version of ourselves that developed it. (Shame)

– Set a boundary without deciding the other person is irredeemable. (People-pleasing)

– Leave something that no longer fits our lives without calling the time we spent there a mistake. (Regret)

Each example names a change without demanding a conviction. Rest doesn’t require evidence. A boundary doesn’t require a villain. An ending doesn’t make everything that came before it meaningless.

The judgment may still arrive. As I mentioned earlier this week, there is no expectation that we will stop judging ourselves entirely. But meeting that first thought with compassion gives curiosity room to enter.

Curiosity asks what is needed. Choice responds to the information we receive.

This is the opposite of a vicious cycle. I’m coining the term gentle cycle right now: Notice what is happening. Wonder what it needs or what else could be true. Choose the next supportive action. Then notice what that choice changes.

A gentle cycle doesn’t mean remaining passive or avoiding difficult truths. It means we don’t have to abuse or shame ourselves into transformation. The choice we make doesn’t need to be perfect or permanent. It can be an experiment, an adjustment, a boundary, a pause, or simply the next step.

Choosing without a verdict also doesn’t mean avoiding accountability. Accountability asks us to acknowledge what happened, understand its impact, and decide what needs to happen next. Judgment is more interested in deciding who deserves punishment.

Sometimes harm is clear, and naming it is part of protecting ourselves. Curiosity does not ask us to abandon discernment or explain away harmful behavior. It simply reminds us that we do not have to manufacture a villain every time something no longer fits.

Self-compassion doesn’t remove accountability. It makes honest change possible.

What choice becomes available to you when you stop trying to determine who is at fault?