The world becomes more interesting and far vaster when you’re open-minded. However, it can be challenging to keep an open mind.
We all have our beliefs, values, preferences, and prejudices that can blind us to new truth and to new experiences. Our view of the world is often tainted in ways we don’t even recognize. It’s a significant challenge to be open-minded.
But, consider these advantages of becoming a more open-minded person:
1. You learn more. Open-minded people are much more interested in learning about different ideas, people, places, and cultures. Close-minded people think they already know everything. They aren’t open to learning something new.
2. You experience fewer negative emotions. Close-minded people are more easily annoyed and offended than are open-mind people. Open-minded people tend to have fewer negative emotions and more positive or neutral emotions. They more often give someone the benefit of the doubt, considering that they might have good reasons for their actions.
3. You get along better with others. Open-minded people intentionally seek out, and genuinely like a greater variety of people. They are also more likable in general and are less likely to get into disagreements and arguments.
4. You have a broader range of experiences. When your mind is open to more possibilities, you’ll enthusiastically engage in new experiences. While close-minded people often lock themselves into more limited lives.
5. You’ll be wrong less frequently. The more open you are, the less likely you are to come to an incorrect conclusion. You’ll consider all the possibilities. You’ll also have a greater range of experiences and have learned more. All of these things will result in you being correct more often!
6. You have the opportunity to learn more from your mistakes. When open-minded persons make a mistake, they can think about what went wrong on a deep level. They’ll consider that maybe they made an error in judgment, their knowledge is incorrect, or they just need more practice. Close-minded persons, on the other hand, are less likely to consider all the possibilities for their failures, so it’s more difficult for them to benefit from the lesson.
7. You are less limited. Almost anything is possible if you can only open your mind wide enough. But when you have a very limited scope, you and your life are very limited, too.
8. You’ll love more people, and more people will love you. Open-minded people are more accepting of others, are less likely to offend or to be offended, are potentially more interesting, and are more interested in others. All of these qualities add up to a person that has the potential to be more loving.
Now, should you choose, you can train yourself to be more open-minded with these four strategies:
1. Avoid reacting reflexively to the opinions of others. Rather than leaping to a conclusion about someone else's opinion, stop and think. Ask questions. Inquire why they believe that. You might learn something you either didn’t know or never considered.
2. Read books by authors with opinions that differ from yours. And to increase the likelihood that you have a wide range of views on issues, challenge yourself to get news from multiple outlets with various and global perspectives.
3. Expose yourself to new people. We tend to hang out with people that are like ourselves. However, there are plenty of other people in the world that have something to offer that’s new for you.
4. Travel. Explore new places and things. Open-minded people are often those who also travel extensively. Have you ever been to a country or to a region where no one looks like you? Different cultures value different things. Enjoy the adventure of traveling!
Yes, it can be very challenging to become more open-minded. And close-minded people tend to find ease and comfort that their beliefs are certainties to them. Many of them would rather not consider any other alternative. But there are so many advantages to being open-minded that it’s well worth the effort.
Try it! You might like it!