The attitude of open-mindedness is another state of mind you have to apply in your life daily or whenever the opportunity presents itself. Being open minded consists of keeping your mind clear and open allowing you to be willing to try new things or look at situations from a different perspective, so that you are able to try new things in your life. When you keep your mind open you may gain a new perspective or form a new viewpoint for events that take place. Practicing this attitude will allow you to learn new ways to get tasks done for yourself. There is more than one way to complete tasks or to do things and being able to keep your mind clear and focused, to listen and try suggestions from others can help you learn new and possibly more productive ways to deal with the situations, get things done, or alter your thinking so you can correct your bad negative habits and have new outcomes.
Open-mindedness also consists of being receptive to the viewpoints and thoughts, observations, and feedback others have for you. Being able to listen to others and accept feedback about yourself helps you learn how others view you. Others feedback might help you learn about the behaviors that you are exhibiting but may not be aware, leading you down a negative path that you might not have expected. Others might have been in the same situation and listening to the feedback could help you gain the knowledge that you did not know of or think of that, it could be very useful for you. Being able to listen to others feedback about you might help you uncover a blind spot that you were not aware about yourself.
The only way someone will ever feel comfortable telling you your flaws is if you are willing to listen to them, even when you disagree. So do not make fun of or dismiss viewpoints and feedback others may have for you. This will not only hinder and ruin your relationship with the other person, it will also ruin your resource of having a honest and caring individual who cares about you enough to tell you where you are wrong or could have done better. I can guarantee if you are able to listen and tolerate the feedback and suggestions from others it would be a productive, constructive experience.
One of my biggest struggles was being able to accept the feedback and suggestions my family and loved ones had for me. Instead of taking it in, keeping my mouth shut and listening without coming up with excuses and justifications for my behaviors, I did not listen and accept their message and did not let their suggestions and feedback marinate in my mind.
The reason I was not able to listen to them was because I took their suggestions and help they had for me as an attack on my character. I found there suggestions belittling, I was very easily offended making it difficult to find the positive in the message. I was not open to constructive criticism because my thoughts about it were negative. Instead of listening to the messaging, taking what I could from it and correcting myself, my sense of pride and ego took it as an attack on my intelligence. I did not like to be told what to do, did not like to be corrected because I was not wrong. According to my mind, I knew everything and had all the answers so “you can’t tell me nothing... all right”.
I know now that being able to listen to the message without attacking the messenger can help me better my thinking. Being receptive to my family members and people that care might help me learn something new. Also it does not mean I have to accept the whole message if there was things said that I do not agree with or are not helpful for me, I have the choice to ignore it and only take what's important.
I find it strange that when my family, friends and other people offered me genuine help, suggestions my perception of the situation was that they are putting me down and attacking my pride and ego. I ignore the suggestions and react in a destructive manner to our relationship. However when a stranger says something not true about me, something I should brush off because it’s not true and they don’t know me and their opinion doesn't matter because they are strangers, I accept their message and putdowns so easily just because it is an attack on my pride and ego.
I have come to learn that it all has to do with my thinking, putting my family and friends first is my choice and accepting their positive feedback is up to me. And the same goes for being able to reject the negative feedback that strangers or people with bad intentions have for me.
I hope that after reading this article you will apply the attitude of open mindedness so that you can have more positive and constructive thinking and relationships. Being able to listen to others without formulating responses while they are speaking will help you be open and clear to the message they have. It will also help you correct your negative thinking and negative behaviors and habits that you might be unaware about.
Practicing the attitude of open mindedness can help you receive the constructive criticism you may need to improve the negative habits or blind-spots others see in you. It will lead to your success and will teach you new ways to get the things you do in your daily routines completed, possibly learning a better and more efficient or faster way to get those tasks completed. You will be able to learn the multiple different viewpoints to a certain topic or event. When people see that you listen to them, they will feel more comfortable sharing more knowledge and information with you and it will improve the relationship you have with other people.
Listening to and accepting feedback from your loved ones and close friends allows you to learn about the issues they may be going through and you might be able to help them with suggestions and advice if you are able to communicate openly with them. Even if you can't solve their issues, they will still appreciate you being able to listen to them vent about their issues at work or around the house and let them get it out of their mind instead of bottling up the negativity. I know firsthand that bottling up of negative emotions leads to negative consequences such as regret, anger, resentment. Practicing open-mindedness will help you combat those awful emotions.
Criticism is key for us to get the feedback, to make the necessary changes and improvements to our relationship with people we love and spend time including at home, your business partners, with your clients and team at your profession. Being able to receive this feedback without formulating justifications and excuses so that you can be receptive to others in order to connect with them better, help them find solutions to problems or even fix your bad habits. People will feel more comfortable approaching you when they know you will listen.
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