My New Year Resolution — To Open Up My Mind, But Not Too Much

From school to university, from university to workplace, with many examples, with many stories, we were advised to be open minded. It was a fact given with examples that open minded people change the world.

Starting with the definition of ‘Open Mindedness’, I thought of being a little open minded towards what ‘Open Mindedness’ actually is.

Open-mindedness is the willingness to search actively for evidence against one’s favored beliefs, plans, or goals, and to weigh such evidence fairly when it is available.

Open minded people are always ready to accept challenges and creativity is a complementary trait comes with open mindedness. They always open up their mind to different possibilities, answers and evidences before coming to a conclusion on something. They are receptive and flexible. They easily come out of their comfort zones to try out different things.

Then who are closed minded people? They are not willing to accept evidences that go against their beliefs. They don’t want to widen their horizon and see things with new perspectives. They are very predictable. The have their own set of rules and they are very strict and loyal to these sets of instructions.

So considering the above points, can we categorize the human kind into two groups — Open Minded and Closed Minded?

Well for me, open mindedness and closed mindedness are the two ends of a spectrum, on which we have to balance the state of our own mind. As I perceive, we cannot simply label some people as cool and happy as they have an open mind and some people as boring and rude as they have a narrow mind. Extremes of both of these traits can be dangerous.

And the way we react to a situation should be highly context driven without being an extreme open minded or closed minded person. Sometimes it is good to live by the norms, and sometimes it is good to be free and challenging. The hardest part is determining what suits what context. The challenge is, our mind gets stuck in one place of this spectrum without letting us control it. If we can get hold of our mind and try out different points of view and evaluate them, without simply abandoning or protecting our beliefs gained through experience and teachings, that would be the best.

Everyone thinks it’s the ’other guy’ who’s closed minded, not us.

Well, this is common to me as well. But at least if we understand that is the human nature, then it will be a good start to position ourselves correctly in the Open-Closed Mindedness Spectrum.

So for me this year, I have a very challenging resolution. To balance my mind well in the Open-Closed Mindedness Spectrum. What about you? :)

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