You may have often heard people talk about how a ‘Fixed Mindset’ keeps you stagnant and a ‘Growth Mindset’ propels you to be transformative and therefore progressive. Being open is the only way to transit from your current mindset successfully. Most often, we have our fixed beliefs and values which become rigid and tough to change in a rapidly developing world. In the world of business today, flexibility is essential otherwise you tend to rust with a ‘Legacy Mindset’. Even with your friends and family an ‘Open Mindset’ makes you sought after as some traits of the mindset as willingness to learn, ability to become carefree and free spirited are very rare. Stress lessens considerably with your new approach and you become cool, casual and confident.
The humorous truth is, that close minded people themselves take long to accept that they are close minded!
Open minded people take better decisions and their decisions are objective and in the best interest of the purpose at hand. To spot out the difference, be at any argument and check out how the argument goes. Close minded people will stubbornly hold on to their point of view without reasoning whereas you will find open minded people flexible and open that their views could stand corrected.
Here are 3 easy steps to change gears to an ‘Open Mindset’
Be determined and resilient
This is true even more for the ones who have a closed mind by nature. Because at each step that you will want to molt positively, your close mindedness will hold you back. However extreme closemindedness is rare. We are born with various degrees of balance but you need to tilt that balance continuously in the favour of being open minded. The same balance will need to be kept when you develop an ‘Open Mindset’, ensure that you do not lose your balance and become so open that you lose all control and objectivity. Be stubborn with yourself when you have set yourself to change positively as we have our own human weaknesses. Be determined and resilient. Keep at it. One day you will be very proud of what you have become.
Develop Humility
Understanding others and what points they make is not easy for anyone as we usually think that we know everything and we know the best. Actually, world over its proven that the best ideas come from anywhere, regardless of age, stage or status. Therefore, before even you commence your transformation, you need to test your humility meter. Remember that the other side of humility is arrogance and arrogance begins with self-pride. Arrogance is all blinding. Like anger, and your decision making and actions are all led by what you think and feel. There is no debate or discussion. You said it and that’s it. Humility begins by letting go of negativity, pride and arrogance. And you cannot just pretend.
Be with people who know more than you
As simple as this sounds, normal human tendency is to hang out with people who are inferior to you or equal to you. This is driven by the security and comfort of not being challenged. People with a closed mindset see disagreements as threats and discourage new views, especially if these views are contradictory. Such people don’t listen to understand but listen to reply. On the other hand, we all know that when we stop learning we de-grow. Those who have an ’Open Mindset’ prefer to be with other people who are much wiser than them. They proactively seek inputs on their strategies and ideas. Their energies are focussed on finding out what’s right and purpose aligned whereas close minded people just focus on fighting to prove that they are right.
. “By all means let’s be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brains drop out.” Richard Dawkins
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