I don’t hate many things. In fact, there are a handful of things I have such negative passion towards that I actually use the word hate. Closed-mindedness is one of the few things I passionately hate.
What Makes You Right…or Wrong
I grew up with a lot of pressure to think one way and that every other way was different. Early on, I mindfully rebelled against everything from spankings to my disagreements with my religious roots. It was difficult to leave the group think mentality and I strive to prevent others from being forced to group think. The reason for this is that group think rarely promotes being open to other approaches and opinions.
I am not right about anything. Opinions are all that I provide and you are free to take those in whatever way you so choose. I am not here to make your mind up for you. No one is. You have to make these decisions for yourself.
I hope you didn’t miss that.
YOU have to make these decisions for YOURSELF.
Difference is The Reason
Why do we do anything in life? Why do we learn new things every day? Why do we travel to far away lands like Australia, South Africa…Nebraska? We do these things because of difference.
If every person, place, thing, action, opinion were the same, we would have no reason for doing anything. We, literally, would just exist. Our brains would be mush and we wouldn’t accomplish even the simplest act as meeting someone else. Thankfully, there is difference in everything.
We have meaning purpose, reason for living our lives simply because of difference. The simple act of difference makes our neurons fire and create interest and intrigue.
As we approach life, we need to distance ourselves from group-think and accept the power of being simply different.
4 Unheralded Ways to Change Your View on Everything
I could be your dad or mom or teacher or boss and say, “How would you feel if you were in their shoes?”, but that is a heralded way. It has become overused, boring and lost most of it’s meaning.
That’s why I am focusing on the unheralded ways….ENJOY!
- At minimum, STOP doing whatever it is your doing 3 times per day for no reason. I like to do this when I am in crowds. I like to see if I am just flowing with the crowd or doing something more interesting like going in the opposite direction of everyone else. When you stop whatever it is your doing, think about why you are doing that thing and if there is a different approach that may change things for the better. This different approach may change things for the worst, but you will never know if you don’t test it.
- Do the exact opposite approach at something you are successful at. Often, when we succeed at something, we think we have mastered it. Often, we are wrong. Take a completely different approach to whatever it is your doing right and you might fail. However, you may catch a few things you were wrong about, be able to make these small changes to your original, successful approach and you may become even more successful.
- Question everything that comes out of everyones mouth. You will be hated for this one. I am daily…multiple times. What this does is get the conversation from talking about something to talking about the reasoning for something. You may even agree or understand the original point, but by questioning may learn a deeper meaning or understanding for why something is done a certain way.
- Learn one new thing about a completely different culture/people/society every day. I probably follow this one too rare. Learning something new and different about cultures that are completely opposite from your background or current situation will force you to accept that there is no wrong or right way to do things. You may disagree with the approach, but after a while, you come to find that being right or wrong is pointless when so many billions of people think differently.
Those are just four of the ways I try to open my mind to thinking differently. I’d hate for my brain to become stagnant because I want to be right and believe you are wrong. Try these for yourself and see how you start to view the world around you. You may enjoy the change.
Share your best approaches to viewing things differently in the comments below.
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Questioning and learning. Two of my favorite things! I grew up in an atmosphere where questions shouldn’t go any deeper than “Do you know Jesus?” I don’t know what made me different from the people around me, but I had a problem with this from day one. I wanted to know why to everything. But I always kept these questions to myself. I specifically remember getting a spanking once because I asked why communion “wine” tasted just like Dimetapp cold medicine! Memories like that only made me question more when I left home. My questions led me to learn things about the cultures my religion despised until finally I couldn’t bear it anymore and had to walk away from those roots.
I think “why” is the ultimate human question. But the world seems to be obsessed with “how.” How do we make more money? How do we further our agenda in the world? How do we get laid by as many people as possible? All of us running around asking how to do things and never stopping to wonder why we want to do them. I guess what I’m rather lengthily trying to say is that my favorite way of viewing things differently is just to ask why. Why is anything the way it is? The answer will often shock you into a new point of view.
Hey Chase—
I hear ya on leaving those roots behind. I am now atheist and it all leads back to asking ‘WHY’ “too much” as I was told.
Questioning in general is good. I think when group think comes in to play, questioning is nowhere to be found.
Looking forward to meeting you in about 36 hours.
David Damron
LifeExcursion
Thank For Shared web site simple to read