I've personally had in the past a huge problem with being too open-minded, however now I see it was simply the result of using the wrong approach. I remember as a kid I started hanging out with a new group of friends and realized that a lot of my beliefs or thoughts weren't really conducive to fitting in with others. So at that time I said to myself that most of my opinions were "wrong" and to instead take the opinions of the group to heart. Now while that worked...somewhat..at the time to help me fit in, it set up a lot of problems in the long run.
I became too open-minded in the sense that I would take everyone's opinions at face value and even when I had opinions that I valued myself, I'd see them start crumbling in the face of anything opposing them.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tobias Zimpel  Or could it be that certain things look different from inside than they would for an outsider? Is it possible that you simply have to try maybe 5 different ways until you can decide which one - if any - fits you best? |
Somewhat recently though I found a solution which relates to Tobias' question, and I've been able to deal with other's opinions much better. Now I realize that everyone's opinion simply comes from their own perspective, and I always try to view opinions through this other perspective so I can better understand where they come from. If I go and view someone elses opinion just from my perspective then I'm not getting the whole picture and generally miss a lot of what went into the formation of that opinion. But by viewing it from the perspective of the source, it helps a great deal in understanding another person and to see more precisely why they hold an opinion, and also it allows the actual idea to be looked at separate from other factors that seem to come along with an opinion, such as personal bias, emotions, and any needs that are being expressed through the opinion. So then I use this separated idea and look at it through my own point of view to basically translate it into a way that works for me.
I basically now no longer think that an opinion can be absolutely wrong, since it will make a lot of sense to the person that holds it. And to look into
why it makes that sense is a big step towards understanding it.