Be open to learn and listen
You have to be a child and a student again if you wish to keep learning .
Listen
We often close our eyes and minds to things as well as situations that we are not comfortable with. We tend to shut the doors and expect something magical to happen. In a similar way when we have a mind block to different opinions we never gain anything from it but only lose.
It’s just fine if you don’t agree to their opinions and have a different viewpoint , there is no harm in ‘listening to others’. Only thing we need to take care of is that those opinions if negative should not be strong enough to effect us in any possible way.
Keep and open outlook and be eager to learn and improve at every time step.
Experiences and lessons never come with an invitation, they are there but only for the eyes that reckon to see and acknowledge them .
The blindfold
We all wish to reach a stage in our lives where we ‘know it all’ and ‘have it all’. Living in reality and in an illusion are two different things. Sometimes we blindfold ourselves from the reality and assume that what ‘we know’ is the only correct thing , which surely might be for an individual at that stage of their life . We always think that everything is either black or white but actually everything is grey , nothing is right or wrong or as we like to say that ‘ right and wrong is very subjective’. At times we are given a choice between something that is wrong or something that is very wrong . Life will not always hand you out fair and clean options or choices. What might seem right to me can be wrong for another person at a certain phase of life. That’s the reason why we close the path to explore and know what others might think about ‘it’.
Two sides to it
This acts like a two edged sword. Listening to others is different from doing what others say.
Will I hamper my chain of thoughts or beliefs if I listen to others? Or will it influence me in a bad way?
It’s all on how you take it , listening and implementing things that you feel right is not a bad virtue . It will be wrong if you idealize someone else’s opinion above yours. That’s why they say ‘Listen to everyone , but do what you feel is right at the end as it’s your life and your call.’ This is very important as the moment we start implementing what ‘others say’ , that’s the moment we start basing our decisions on their opinions and in the end we blame them if something goes wrong or don’t give ourselves the due credit if something goes right.
If you approach an issue with a mindset that you already know it then you might not learn anything from it . There is always a little more to learn and appreciate.
Like for instance I decide not to read a self- help book as I believe there’s nothing new to it and I know it all already , but just because my friend asked me to read that book I open it but with a closed mindset. I read a line of the book and start contradicting it and taking it out of context . I keep doing it as I read a couple of pages and at the end what was that I learnt? Nothing , I learnt absolutely nothing even though there were good thoughts and concepts in it. What conclusion would you make out of it, is reading what other wrote that don’t match your ideas wrong . They say in a game to win , try to understand your opponents strategy , try to figure out there way of approaching the game as well .
It’s okay to think how others think and it’s totally fine if it doesn’t match your way of thinking because after all we are humans with different belief systems and have different ways of approaching life ,that’s what makes us stand out from others and have different personality traits.
The more blindfolded you are the more opportunities you miss in life . You never know what you will learn next and keeping an open approach to things helps a lot . It helps you to judge less but learn and grow more.
That’s why it’s well said, ‘An open mind is the only weapon sharp enough to pierce ignorance and an open heart is the only ally trustworthy to wield it.’
Mindset
Your mind will act based on what you feed it. Keeping an open mindset allows us to broaden our perspective towards certain issues and think about all possible ways we can deal with it and then choose the best one out of it.
Take a moment and ask yourself questions ,take some time to comprehend and evaluate .
The goal should be to understand different opinions . You will never try to run away from the truth even after knowing it’s not pleasant if you carry an open mindset.
Do you wish to be narrow-minded , judgmental and opinionated or do you rather wish to be an open minded person who challenges his/her ideologies and is curious to listen what others have to say ? That lies in your hands because at the end we all have a choice to make.
