We all probably feel as though we are generally open-minded. Generally. Do you have a closed mind or an open mind?
Success in life generally finds itself in the company of the open-minded individuals while it is more elusive for those with closed minds. Knowing your propensity for having either a closed mind or open mind might give you insight into your level of struggle for survival or tendency to have life evolve more naturally.
For instance, if you are more likely to seek to be understood rather than the need to understand others, you’re probably less open-minded than you might think you are.
When encountering a person with a difference of opinion, are you more likely to try to understand why they feel the way they do? Or do you try to convince him or her that you’re more knowledgeable and have a greater sense of expertise about the subject at hand?
An open-minded person is more interested in hearing, understanding, and may be interested in trying to understand how it might feel for someone else to have a different perspective. While a closed-minded person will assert his or her beliefs.
“I already know that.”
When someone tries to tell a closed-minded person something they already possess some knowledge about, they are likely to cut them off mid-share with, “I already know that.” In contrast, if the open-minded person knows a lot about a subject, they are willing to ask questions and listen to information, even if it represents knowledge they already possess, with the chance that they may uncover a previously undiscovered nugget or idea to consider.
A closed-minded person will state facts and statistics, rather than ask exploratory questions, like an open-minded person.
Opinions and thinking are the inalienable rights of the closed-minded person, while open-minded people are more concerned about learning more about the opinions of others and how they feel about things.
An open-minded person is always interested in raising their knowledge or awareness, with a hint of the potential knowingness of the possibility of believing something that might be expanded upon or even be wrong. Truth evolves over time. That’s why they’re more apt to be so inquisitive, as opposed to being stuck in their ways.
Open-minded people can contemplate two opposing ideas for a period of time, filtering, balancing, and comparing them to each over for a while, instead of quickly adhering to a single thought, belief, or perspective without being open to new ideas or information.
A closed-minded person is more apt to interrupt or talk-over those who are attempting to communicate their thoughts on any given subject. They are content with hearing their own voice and exerting their expertise. What others think is of little interest to them, which could create a potentially toxic energy in relationships.
Wrong-But Maneuver
If you’re a closed-minded person who wants to come off as an open-minded person, you may use the “wrong-but maneuver.” That is, to exert a bit of superiority while coming off as being understanding, like saying,
“I might be wrong, but…”
then exerting your opinion, belief, or highly regarded statistical data.
Close-minded people exert their superiority and do not engage in discussion or battles that might challenge their beliefs.
Open-minded people are more likely to exert their humility rather than their superiority.
People who are more likely to be open-minded often have a past which includes failures from which they have learned valuable lessons, while the closed-minded individual is hardly able to admit to having made mistakes in the past.
Closed-minded people are more likely to claim they have been victimized or blame others for what might have been considered a failure.
If you’re seeing some of the signs of being closed-minded in yourself, don’t be too concerned about it because you can become more open-minded, but not if you don’t know.
Most closed-minded people have no idea that they are. In most cases, they think they are completely open-minded. Seeing the inconsistency within yourself can be the key to overcoming closed-mindedness.
And if you’re open-minded, there is no judgment for those who are closed-minded, they are only doing the best they can with what they have. Maybe one day, they can change. If they don’t, it’s okay.
It takes all kinds to make the world go ’round. We all have different parts we play in the symphony of life.
