How To Keep An Open Mind

“Visiting a new town is like having a conversation. Places ask questions of you just as searchingly as you question them. And, as in any conversation, it helps to listen with an open mind, so you can be led somewhere unexpected. The more you leave assumptions at home, I’ve found, the better you can hear whatever it is that a destination is trying to say to you.” ~ Pico Lyer
Do you remember being open-minded as a child, enthralled by learning new things, and asking hundreds of questions to be sure you had a good grip on the subject? It was so much fun, and in the middle of all that fun, you grew up.

The majority of us believed that what we learned from the mouths of our parents and family members was THE way life was supposed to be. We had no idea that there were other kids in other families who were learning about life differently, and we also had no idea that more than likely, each way was just fine.

As we matured, we became aware of some of these ‘other ways,’ and we learned to accept or reject them according to our preference.

Today, let’s take a look at two words and see what they mean to us: limitlessness and infinity. I’d like to propose that we view life as limitless and we consider the concept of infinity as ‘life without end.’ If you can agree with the concepts behind those two words, you could continue having fun for a long, long, time and learn lots more than you’ve learned up to this point.

You might figure out that there are so many more ways to raise children than the way in which you were raised. You might discover that there are multiple options for behavior in polite society beyond the ones you were taught. Many families exist in a state of fabulous harmony while they do things differently than the way you learned to do them.

Why? Because life is limitless and there is an infinity of time and space in which to learn more about things. You don’t have to sit in judgment because a mother sends different foods for her child’s lunch than your mother did. You don’t have to blame a father who chooses to stay at home and rear his children because that was your mother’s job.

The phenomenon called Life is infinite in the ways in which it manifests. Don’t you think it would be fun to learn at least three more ways to do things than the way you were taught? There would definitely be no boredom in this kind of a life.

You’d need to become more of a man or woman of the Universe and you’d have to be open-minded, non-judgmental, and accepting. It’s good to be that way anyway, whether you pursue new ideas or not. Here are some tips to help you accomplish this open-minded perspective.

• Thought is causative and what you think does become what you get. Try this with just one small idea and grow from there. I put this first on the list for a good reason.

• Limitless and infinite describe the universe, but because this is an individual and mental experience, if you think other than that, you get what you think.

• It is not selfish to consider your Self first. It is virtuous. I allows you to filter out the chatter from others, whether negative or positive. What you think of you is the most important.

• You constantly collect data and systematize it. You get more bang out of using the data to create solutions for problems than in just collecting the problems.

• When you write down your goals, it serves as a form of commitment . In Harvard’s MBA program, the 3% who had written goals were earning, ten times as much as the other 97% of the class combined!

• If you don’t have your own love and your own self approval, you will never believe anyone else who tries to provide it for you.

• One of the best questions you can ask is “How old was I when I decided this?” You will always need to refresh your decisions so you are living on your decisions, and not that of your parents, or family, or any other.

• Have you discovered what your One Big Dream is? It is the only thing in this life that you must accomplish to feel satisfied. Finding your passion helps you fulfill your One Big Dream and nothing else will make you happy in the long run.

• You know how you like the way you are, the way you think, the way you do things, the way you make decisions? Allow all others to be how they are without any advice from you.

• The most practical form of love is acceptance. First accept yourself as is; then, accept others as is. Each of us is self sufficient and can work our own dreams and our own life.

If I ever heard back that you accepted these ideas without testing for their validity, I’d feel sad. Test, test, test. Life is really a science and you can experiment in it, just as scientists experiment in their laboratories. Once you can see that there is more than one way to accomplish anything, you will have an open mind, greater tolerance for yourself and others. It’s more harmonious once you learn these lessons.