If you're working in a multicultural or a diverse environment, and you
recognize the importance of being open-minded, then this is the video
for you.
Because in this video, I'm gonna share with you five ways on how you
can train your brain to be open-minded.
And you'll find that after these five ways, if you implement them, of
course, because knowledge itself is not wisdom, but applied knowledge
is where the wisdom comes to fruition in your life.
You're gonna notice that open-mindedness will come naturally to you,
and it will be something that you don't have to put effort into.
And that's my goal for you in this video.
So when it comes to open mindedness, what does that mean?
Cause I'm sure that you have Googled this before and you read a lot of
articles on open mindedness, but I wanna give you a distinction, a key
distinction on what does it mean to be open minded.
Right?
Open mindedness is not a personality trait.
It's not a characteristic, it's also not a genetic thing that you're
born with or you're born without.
Open mindedness is open mindedness is nothing more than a state of
mind.
It is a state of mind.
In other words, a type of a mindset where you are naturally open and
willing to consider other people's perspectives.
Even when other people's perspectives are quite different from your
own or they're opposite of your own perspectives, or maybe they even
challenge your perspectives that you are willing to open mindedly,
you're willing to consider them.
You're willing to listen to them as well.
And you're maybe even willing to adopt some of their principles from
their perspective.
That is the distinction of open-mindedness.
Now it is really also known as a state of being unbiased, right?
So that is another way to talk about open-mindedness it's really an
unbiased state unprejudiced state, because you are willing to accept
it, willing to listen to it and really willing to pay attention and
have the patience to go through what is your perspective, right?
And when it comes to being open mindedness, let's talk a little bit
about why is this so difficult?
Why is that so difficult to do, right?
And the essence of why it's difficult, why that is a challenge is
because on the core of every human, every individual has their own
priority of values.
We have our own values systems.
Some people called it a hierarchy of values, and these values really
dictate all of our actions, your values dictate your decisions and
your values also dictate your perspectives.
Right?
Your life, the way that you're living right now, they are driven by
your values.
So that's why it's really important to understand, and to have some
awareness of what are my core values, what are they actually?
Not what you think they should be, not what you think they have been,
but what are they actually, what are your actual, your true values?
And the thing is whenever we all have our set of values and your
values are unique to you, my values are unique to me and no two people
have the same set of values.
No two people have the same system of values.
So as a result of that, whenever you meet somebody new and whenever
you're working alongside along somebody they're gonna have different
values.
And as a result of that, they have different perspectives because our
perspectives are driven by our values.
And anytime we meet somebody where they have a perspective and they
share their perspective and you find that their perspective supports
yours, and you find that their value system kind of supports your own
value systems, you will naturally feel that, that it is a friendly
perspective.
You'll naturally be more warm and welcome to that perspective.
And the flip side is also true.
Whenever you meet somebody or you're working along side, alongside
somebody, and they share their perspective and you find that their
perspectives are opposite from yours, or you find that their values
are quite different from yours.
And they challenge yours.
You're going to label that as unfriendly.
You're gonna label that as something I want to avoid or something that
is a risk or a threat to you, right?
That is always two-sided.
And so when it comes to being open-mindedness, it's not possible to
always be meeting somebody who is gonna support you in what's truly
most important to you is not gonna be possible.
It's not possible to always have support from the external.
So this is why the essence of why it is important to develop the state
of mind of open mindedness.
Because in any situation, in any environment you can be in, there's
always going to be people who challenge your values and your what's
important to you.
And there will be some people who support them.
And oftentimes the more that we desire to seek people who support it,
the more we will also see the opposite.
Those who challenge it, those who have quite the opposite perspectives
and values, right?
So it's not possible to always be among people or to change people so
that they come to our side.
It's not possible to change people, to shape their perspectives so
that they come over to our side and adopt our perspectives.
That's not possible either because every people, every individual
yourself included is just interested in preserving what's important to
me, right?
What's important to that person.
And everyone is, everyone is in, is invested in that.
What I what's into me, what are my highest values, right?
And looking for ways to enforce that way, to articulate that.
And that's what people are committed to.
So that's why it's not possible to change them.
So that is the essence of what open mindedness is and why it is very
important to develop that state of mind.
And so now let's go into it to talk about the five ways and how you
can train your brain to be open-minded and that it will be natural to
you.
And by the way, if you enjoy this topic, give me a thumbs up, cuz I
wanna hear from you as well.
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topics like this, and so much more.
Way number one, the first way to program your brain to become more
open-minded naturally is to change your relationship with challenge
because when it comes to challenges that come in our life and in our
career path and in our relationships, and so on most of the time, you
know, it's common for individuals to see challenges as a threat
challenges to a threat of our way of being, or as a threat to our
routine, as a threat to our identity or as a threat to our
intelligence or the way people perceive us.
Right?
So these are quite common.
And as a result of seeing challenges as a threat, what we will
naturally do as a consequence of that is we will naturally tend to
want to avoid challenges or go as far away from them as possible, or
to turn away from opportunities or to not raise our hand.
Because there are too many challenges that threaten our identity or
the way people perceive us.
Right.
And comment below.
I wanna hear from you, if you, if this is resonating with you, I wanna
hear from you just say, yes, I've, I've experienced that before.
And when it comes to seeing challenges this way, this is where it'll
always create that feeling of resistance.
It'll always create that feeling of procrastinating on pursuing
opportunities like that so long as you perceive challenges as a
threat.
So that is the why the first way is to change your relationship with
challenge.
Instead of seeing challenges as a threat, perceive them as a very
valuable mechanism to refine your skillset so that you can achieve
mastery of your craft because let's face it when it comes to achieving
mastery.
And by the way, I really do believe that the whole purpose of learning
is to achieve mastery in that thing.
But when it comes to becoming a master of your craft, and a lot of
people talk about becoming experts in their field or leaders in their
industry, when it comes to achieving that level of career achievement
or that level of achievement of your goals, it does in, it does
involve, and it does necessarily need to have challenges.
Cause imagine this, you go along your career path and there are
absolutely no challenges along your way, everything is just smooth
sailing and everybody who meets you, they say yes to you, right?
Everything that you wish for is granted.
And at the same time, it is just completely smooth all the way.
As a result of an absence of challenges, what that causes on the flip
side is now an addiction to support because the opposite of challenge
is support.
So the more that we have absences of challenges in our life, or the
more we seek to avoid challenges, the greater our tendency to want to
have support only, being addicted to support.
And if you have only support in your life, right?
Let me know, comment below, have you, have you yourself met people who
have more cha more support than challenges.
How do those individuals usually turn out when it comes to having
resilience, right?
When it comes to being accepting of other people, when it comes to
even being able to step up when the going gets tough in
life, which it necessarily does, right?
How do those people usually manage that?
So that's why challenges.
If you see them instead of as a threat, but is set as a valuable
mechanism to refine you your skillset, to help you master your craft.
Then it changes your relationship with challenge, and you'll no longer
seek to avoid it.
And you'll no longer have that addiction to support because in life it
is not possible to only have yeses or to only have supports or to only
have smooth sailing all the time.
That's not possible.
Life gives you both.
Life gives you an equal balance of both.
So step number one, the first way, that's why it's so important and is
very crucial to change your relationship with challenge.
Way number two, to be more open-minded is to love others for who they
are.
Now, I know what you're thinking, as soon as I said that, you might be
thinking, well, this is professional.
I'm I'm talking about the professional corporate workplace.
It's inappropriate to love.
It's inappropriate, but you see, I'm not referring to romantic love.
I'm not referring to that.
I'm referring to loving people for who they are, which means
appreciating their strengths and weaknesses, appreciating their
securities and insecurities, appreciating their differences in all
aspects of it.
Because here's the thing about humans as a principle, every individual
just wants to be loved for who they are, and this includes the
workplace.
So it is very appropriate even in the workplace, even in professional
settings, to love people for who they are, because as individuals,
we're all walking around, wanting to be loved for who we are.
And what does that mean?
It means that no matter what mistakes they make, no matter what
perspectives they have, no matter what decisions they make, they wanna
be appreciated for it.
Right?
And if you understand this from a deep level and you reflect within
yourself, you'll notice that this is true because oftentimes we come
across individuals that are difficult to love or difficult to get
along with or difficult to work with.
But if we will learn to appreciate even those most difficult
circumstances, and we love them for who they are, they turn into
people we love.
And when we love them for who they are, another thing that could
happen, another really advantage and a benefit that could happen is
that they turn into people we love.
And at the same time, we're no longer resentful of them because so
long as we don't love and appreciate them for who they are, we will,
and necessarily we will want to change them.
We will want them to come to our side of the table.
We will want them to ha to adopt our perspectives.
We will want them to see our per point of view.
We will want them to say yes to us or agree to everything we suggest
necessarily that will be our intention, whether we admitted or not,
whether we say it outright or not, this is what will be created within
so long as we do not love and appreciate people for who they are.
So if we do adopt this mentality in terms of, I understand that we
have differences.
I understand that we have our own unique weaknesses and strengths.
And I understand that we have our own unique perspectives and
sometimes our perspectives may clash and be different or challenge one
another.
But I love you anyways, right?
When you adopt that mentality, this is where they turn into who you
love, and you will no longer be resentful.
And this is what creates peace and harmony in any situation, any
relationship, whether it be professional or personal.
The third way to program your brain to become naturally more
open-minded is to embrace all of who you are.
I mean, let's face it.
We go through life willing to change certain things about ourself.
We go through life, liking certain things, but disliking certain
things about ourself and those things that we dislike about ourselves,
we wanna change them, get rid of them, hide them, or cover them up.
And so we have these sides about around ourselves that we do not
embrace and that we do not like we're going to always want to cover
them up.
And we're gonna always want to compare ourselves with other people.
And we're gonna always want to talk in a certain way to not reveal
those sides of ourselves.
And the other thing is true so long as we have these sides that we
dislike about ourselves.
Whenever there are other people that we meet or that we work with that
have different perspectives to us.
And whenever we are faced with challenges, those challenges will
further magnify these insecurities because the parts that, that we
dislike about ourselves so long as we do not embrace them, we will
always feel that those areas are our most insecure.
And when it comes to challenges, challenges have a way to really
magnify our insecurities.
And in those insecurities, this is where we had the highest propensity
to say things that we later regret.
How many of you have experienced that I wanna hear from you, comment
below how many have experienced that where people, where you've meet,
where you meet people and they say things, they say things that they
wouldn't otherwise say, but it's out of their own insecurities that
they say them, and they might regret it later on, but it causes a, a
wedge in the relationship.
So this happens whenever there is an insecurity.
That means there is a part of you, or there are, there are parts of
yourself that you dislike or that you want to disown, or that you do
not embrace.
So that's why the third way is really important because what is within
the seed that is inside is planted outside.
What is within gets mirrored outside.
So that's why this is really super important.
I wanna hear from you acknowledge this, that from this point forward,
you're gonna commit to embrace all of who you are.
The fourth way to train your brain to become more open-minded is to
practice deep introspection.
now, intro is within right.
Intra is between people.
Intro is within.
So introspection introspection is very important because the whole
purpose of introspection is to really have an examination glass
directed inwards.
This is where your eyes are directed inwards.
Instead of looking at what everybody else is doing, what everybody
else is saying.
This is the practice of going within, going deep within to understand
who you are and to understand what you're all about.
So when it comes to deep introspective introspection, the one of the
key things to this practice is to realize that your own perspectives
are sometimes incomplete because oftentimes we develop our in, we
develop our perspectives.
Again, as I mentioned earlier, our perspectives are driven by our
values, but sometimes we can hold our perspectives so strongly because
we really do believe our perspectives.
We really believe we saw what we saw, and we really do believe that
this is the way it is.
But oftentimes even in the strength at which we hold our own
perspectives that our perspectives are not in, that are not, they're
not complete.
We don't see the whole picture of it.
We see one side of it.
We see the side that supports our values.
We see the side that really gives us the feeling that we are supported
and gives us confirmation of what we do believe.
And this is a bias that we have inside of our brain.
It is very natural.
So this is where it's important that you raise you step up in your
consciousness and you take the, you have the courage and the
willingness to challenge your own perspectives.
Give yourself a challenge, because oftentimes when we have a
perspective, we have that perspective.
If you think about it, how did your perspective get there?
Have you ever taken the time to really reflect upon that this is the
perspective I have about this thing, but how did that perspective get
there?
How did I formulate that perspective?
Right?
Oftentimes we just have our perspectives and we hold onto them and we
articulate them.
And sometimes we fight and argue about our perspectives, but do we
ever of take a moment to think, how did they get there?
How do we even develop them?
And are our perspectives really reflective of the truth?
Not what we think is the truth, but, uh, are they really reflective of
reality and what is true out there?
And so this is the really important step is to challenge your
perspectives.
When you challenge your perspective, this is how you can expand your
knowledge, really develop greater wisdom and depth of wisdom as well.
And at the same time to be familiar with challenges because you
yourself are challenging your perspectives.
And this is why it's important to have perspectives, but perspectives
that are loosely held, right, and not perspectives that are so closely
held that you're unwilling to budge, unwilling to go to the other side
or unwilling to see things from the opposite perspective as your own,
because when it comes to perspectives, oftentimes perspectives can be
confused with opinions and whose opinion is the absolute truth
anyways, my opinion, your opinion, their opinion, whose opinions are
the absolute truth anyways?
And so our perspectives, if you go out there and you really do
explore, and you really become a truth seeker, this is where you can
get familiar with the notion of challenge and you won't resist it so
much, but at the same time, you could expand your knowledge base and
really have clarity on who am I right now and who do I wanna become?
Right?
So that is the fourth way is to really, really practice deep
introspection.
The fifth and final way to train your brain to become more open-minded
is to practice deep gratitude, even among challenges, because when it
comes to being grateful for something it's really easy, it takes
absolutely no effort to be grateful when things go your way, it
absolutely takes no effort to be thankful to say thank you or to be
very grateful when people are supporting you, that takes no effort.
And oftentimes in life, we go through life only being grateful when
there is support, we're only thankful.
We only thank people when they support us.
When they see our perspectives or when they change to adopt our
perspectives, then we're grateful.
And then we're thankful.
But the challenge in life and a meaningful one is to practice
gratitude, even in challenges, because among challenges, when you can
be grateful, even when you have challenges, because you see challenges
going back to the first way, by the way, when you see challenges, not
as a threat, but as a valuable feedback mechanism to refine your
skills, to master your craft.
And you're grateful for those challenges, then you can have gratitude
among both support and challenges because life gives you both support
and challenges.
If you're only grateful when support comes your your way.
And you're only grateful when things go your way, then you're only be
great.
You're only going to be grateful half of the time.
And the opposite of gratitude is ingratitude thanklessness and the
state of being in, ingratitude and thanklessness is a state of very
low energy, right?
It's very difficult to be fulfilled.
It's really difficult to be content even.
It's very difficult to have meaningful relationships when we are in
ingratitude or thanklessness.
And so we're only grateful for the times that things go our way, then
we're only in gratitude half of the time, and we're in thanklessness
the other half of the time, but wouldn't it be more meaningful in
life, wouldn't experiences be more meaningful, to be more depth and to
have more chances at opportunities that turn in to meaningfulness to
us and greater contributions for us, if we are grateful all of the
time.
And that is within your control, because your perceptions also go on
to influence your gratitude and the moments in which you can feel
grateful and be grateful even when there are challenges.
And I say, when there are challenges, not if there are challenges,
because challenges will happen, life gives you both, right?
So I have another video for you.
Coming up next is my video that I created earlier on the five ways to
be yourself, because this is about being authentic, right?
So stay tuned that video's gonna come up next on the five ways to be
yourself.