Having an open mind is crucial for not only surviving, but thriving, in the 21st century. Seems crazy? Read on!
But first, a quick definition…
What does it mean to be open-minded?
In my opinion, to be open minded simply means to be open to new ideas without any preconceptions about them. This means that there are no prejudices about the idea or the person conveying it (if there are any, then you try your best to suppress them). As a by-product of this, you generally become more creative, curious, and willing to explore the new things.
Please note that being open to new ideas does NOT mean that you have to agree with them! The point is that you should have this initial phase of unbiased listening. After listening intently, you can then freely judge, adopt or condemn the idea as you see fit.
Why is an open mind important? Here are 3 reasons:
1. Globalized Society
With the advent of the internet and commercial air travel, we are now all part of a joint global community. As a direct result of this, various people, cultures and ideas are constantly mixing and clashing. Having an open mind is absolutely necessary for enabling your own growth and learning when exposed to new ways of life. You need to be able to listen to, and to consider, different views, and not let your own bias get in the way.
Furthermore, being closed-minded towards another’s culture can be perceived as a form of disrespect. So that’s something to be mindful of when travelling or when communicating with foreigners.
2. Dynamic world
Whether you like it or not, the world is constantly changing. You can either change with it or you can attempt to cling to the past and probably end up being left behind. I advocate for the former. To me, it is obvious that living in a dynamic world requires a dynamic mindset- in essence, something that is true today may not be true tomorrow. This is especially relevant for the 21st century. Twenty years in and we have already seen drastic shifts in daily human life, as a result of the wide-spread adoption of the smartphones, the internet, video games, social media and so much more (whether or not these adoptions have been good or bad, is a separate discussion!).
But we have only just begun to scratch the surface. For the remainder of this century, there are even more technological advancements likely to continue to alter our lives: artificial intelligence and deep learning applications in just about every profession, gene editing using CRISPR-cas9, conversion to renewable energy sources and devices, and even commercial space travel to Mars! You need to be mentally prepared to process these and many more things… some are already here, and others are on the way!
3. Human Nature
I believe that being open-minded is one’s truest nature! Cast your mind back to when you were a child (unless you are a child and reading this for some reason); those crazy ideas you had, the inquisitive curiosity, the boundless imagination, and the excitement of it all. In truth, we were all born as open-minded individuals. But what happened? It is society that teaches us to abandon this “childish” mindset and moulds us into closed-minded robots who believe that there is only a single “normal” way of doing things. This single way is, of course, subjective to whatever we are taught.
At this point, I want to go off on a brief tangent and make it clear that I am not opposed to the existence of societal norms- they are useful in helping us to cooperate and co-exist somewhat peacefully. My grievance is with “blind adherence” to society… particularly when the societal idea or norm is completely wrong or just makes no sense… think institutional racism or gender inequality! Unfortunately, it is humanly instinctive to follow whatever is popular, so this blind adherence to society is quite dominant. People generally accept however society is without realizing what it is they are accepting. Those rare few who do question things, are in the minority, and often feel alienated and powerless to change anything. I want to encourage my readers to be unafraid to question the status quo. If you believe there is societal injustice or that something is just wrong, speak up! Chances are, you are not alone.
Alright, continuing with the human nature point… consider how remarkable humans are! There are pockets of human civilization living just about everywhere; from extreme cold (arctic tundra), to extreme heat (deserts); from high mountains, to swamps, to man-made metropolitan cities, to everything in-between. All of this was only made possible through open-minded, innovative thinking and clever adaptations. In fact, our rise to dominance as a species was only made possible due to our superior cognitive abilities and capability to adapt. Rest assured this same open-minded thinking is what, I believe, will navigate us through the big problems facing humanity today.
Open-mindedness in the context of this blog
You might be wondering what being open-minded has to do with health and longevity. Unfortunately, being healthy is not very popular (If it was, I would not have felt compelled to make a blog about it!) .You need an open mind to be able to question potentially detrimental parts of your lifestyle that you may have grown accustomed to, and to adopt healthier alternatives. Personally, I have had a lot of unlearning and learning to do, and I am sure that this will be an ongoing process as I continue to learn more and as new research is published.
Hopefully by now, you are convinced that having an open mind in the 21st century is a must. However, being open-minded is easier said than done.
Check out this post on the challenges of being open-minded and how to overcome them.
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