An Open Mind — Journey of a Lifetime
“Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won’t come in.” ― Isaac Asimov
As the quote above suggests, having an open mind is not a one-time change. It’s a process you continue to go through — ideally for the rest of your life.
That being said… it’s not the easiest thing to do. Your assumptions are powerful things, and they change your perception more than you might think. So, how do you scrub off your assumptions then? Is there some secret solution I can offer you?
No.
The only person who can change your mind — is you.
But just because you want to have an open mind, does that mean you do? Of course not. I myself — and many others — would like to believe that we’re open-minded. What gets in the way is our cognitive bias (along with our assumptions).
There are many types of cognitive bias, some of which you’ve probably heard of. Common examples would be confirmation bias or the Dunning-Kruger effect. These biases distort how we think, and trying to combat them can be a difficult process.
So how do you begin this process?
Crack Open Your Mind
The first step towards an open mind is a difficult one. I won’t lie to you and act like it’s not. It is very difficult. There is a silver lining though — you don’t need to change overnight. In fact, I would recommend not trying to change that fast.
Getting rid of your assumptions takes time, it’s something you’ll be working on for the rest of your life. Before you get discouraged though — that’s not a bad thing! What that really means is you’ll be improving for the rest of your life!
Ok, so how do you actually go about it then? It starts with two simple concepts. Difficult, but simple.
Be Vulnerable
“Vulnerability sounds like truth and feels like courage. Truth and courage aren’t always comfortable, but they’re never weakness.” ― Brene Brown
Step 1, put down your walls. For some people, this may sound easy. For others… well, they might rather do anything else. Regardless of how easy it may or may not sound — I can assure you it is not.
We all have things we don’t like to hear — having our beliefs questioned, having something (or someone) we like get criticized, or maybe it’s simply a hurtful comment. When people hear things they don’t like, their natural reaction might be to reject them. They may even get defensive, seeing it as a personal attack — even if they don’t realize it.
Does this actually help them? In the short term, it might help them ignore something they didn’t want to hear. In the long term though… all it does is stop them from growing as a person.
As painful as being vulnerable can be, I cannot recommend it enough. You may be letting the pain in, but you’re also letting the good in too. In being willing to accept new possibilities — even if you don’t like them — you’re allowing yourself to reach new heights.
Of course, it can be easy to dwell on the negative. For some people — myself included — that’s why they put up walls in the first place. It can be a difficult balance to maintain, letting the good and bad in but not focusing too much on either.
My advice — don’t chain yourself to a belief or idea. You are whoever you want to be, you are separate from the assumptions you have. If you can accept that — then you can more easily move on from your past assumptions.
Seek the Truth
“The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off.” ― Joe Klaas
Step 2, always question everything — within reason. I’m not telling you to question if the sky is really blue (not that it would hurt). What I mean is that you shouldn’t assume you know what you’re talking about — or that someone else does.
The problem is that many people don’t realize they are making assumptions. It’s easy to form assumptions, you just pick them up as you get older. At a certain point, we tend to take certain things for granted. It might be something that you were always told growing up — and everyone you know agrees, so it must be true. Well, except for those people you don’t like, but why would you listen to them?
Do you see how this can get bad fast?
This ties back to what I said before — don’t chain yourself to a belief or idea. It’s ok to be wrong, it’s actually pretty normal to be wrong often. Seek the truth, don’t cling to past assumptions. When you learn that you were wrong, you can now move closer to the truth. Only in constantly questioning yourself can you figure out what you’re getting wrong.
And that’s the thing — nobody has everything figured out.
If you think your core beliefs are entirely correct… you are most certainly wrong. That isn’t something to be ashamed of though — accepting that you don’t have it all figured out opens the way to new possibilities.
Now, this doesn’t mean you should accept everything that runs counter to your own beliefs. It certainly doesn’t mean you should agree with every opinion out there. Having an open mind is simply about accepting the possibilities — understanding that even if you are 99.99% sure you are right, you still might be wrong.
Hint… it’s probably a higher chance than you think.
Never Stop Growing
Step 3, keep moving forward. Wait, step 3? I know, I said two concepts — but I said it starts with two. As I said at the start, this is a life-long process — and you don’t want to stop.
If you take nothing else away from this, just remember this — Never Stop Growing. No matter how slowly you move, if you take one step forward every day you’ll be shocked at how far you go. At its core, being open-minded is about continual change. In taking in new information and tossing out your old assumptions, you’ll continue to change — for the better!
The worst thing you could do is stop moving forward.
Have you ever heard how much people’s bodies change every 7–10 years? Now how much do you think people change mentally over that same period of time?
According to this study by Science magazine, people tend to underestimate how much they’ll change over the next decade. They found that people tend to think who they are in the present is who they’ll be in the future. Of course, this is far from the truth.
So — who will you be in 10 years?
