10 Benefits of keeping an open mind in life

There are so many essential benefits of keeping an open mind, which serve different purposes in our lives.

In Nelson Mandela’s words ‘The mind is like a parachute. It doesn’t work if it isn’t open.’

As the saying goes, ‘everyone is blind to his/her own faults’. This statement if ran as a reference through our lives will be found to be true because we are all victims.

If you still doubt that, then you might want to have a rethink about the status of your mindset as regards to being open because an open-minded person would freely welcome and think over it before agreeing or disagreeing.

You might want to ask yourself this, do you agree to it? or is there even any possibility that it could be true?

It takes only the open-minded to admit to his/her faults and to such a statement.

It’s a given that the mind can be open to some issues and closed to some, meaning that at one point in time we might be open-minded to different situations and to others we are fixed minded.

But life is coinlike and should be followed in such a manner.

Benefits of keeping an open mind

There are many benefits that come from keeping an open mind, but here are a few of them.

1. It allows us to form our character and personality.

Forming our character, and personality is one of the important benefits of keeping an open mind.

Open-mindedness allows us to be more real and honest. Being open-minded goes a long way to make us better.  It can allow us the opportunity to be real.

Sometimes out of fear, we lie over even little things. When we are open in our mindsets, we will tend to sometimes understand that we have nothing to lose if we said it the way it is.

That understanding can only be learned if we give our minds the chance to understand and assimilate that concept.

By keeping an open mind, we begin to form and shape a new us, a new character that will be used to define us.

The moment we get an open-minded mentality, we will tend to see an improvement in the way we did things compared to how we did in the past, at least if we are able to put them into action. We will see a different us – a new us.

2. It allows us the sense to question our, thoughts, beliefs, and values.

Again, one of the benefits of keeping an open mind is questioning our thoughts, beliefs, and values generally in life.

We are who we are, and have been able to stay who we are because of our thought-through process and core value differences.

In fact, one of the reasons why most of us are closed in the mind is because we cling to our core values, beliefs, and thoughts which we sometimes refuse to reassess.

Most of us grew up having strong beliefs and principles which our parents, guardians, relatives, environment, etc. instilled in us and sometimes we live all through their lives holding onto them not minding whether they are right or wrong and never for once reassessing these concepts.

The moment we begin to question our own thoughts, beliefs, and thinking, we would have opened up our minds, that is to say, we are keeping an open mind.

3. It Mitigates pride and ego

You might want to ask why a lot of us are rigid sometimes to some facts that are clear.

Well! Have you ever considered ego and pride being wounded, which turn around to make us feel little if we ever agreed to a concept we are ignorant of?

Sometimes most of us do this because we don’t want to be seen as weaklings, or as someone who doesn’t know much, so we stick to an old fashioned, less optimal idea. This doesn’t project us as people keeping an open mind.

Having ego and pride might not be wrong, it’s only when we keep up our pride 100 percent at every incident that it may become a problem.

Ego is what causes us to want to move ahead while trying to show everyone how smart and strong even when we get stuck.

It happens to a lot of us, because of pride we failed to open our minds to ideas that can push our projects forward.

We have to be open-minded in other to understand emotional intelligence, which will allow us to know how to carry and apply our pride to different situations of life.

Mitigating pride is one of the benefits of keeping an open mind that goes a long way to help us improve our lives.

With an open mind, we will learn to keep ego and pride aside while doing certain things. We will learn to admit that we don’t know it all.

By doing so we will allow and accept new ideas and methods of doing things when suggested to us.

4. It allows us to see and identify opportunities

Open-mindedness is a process that exists in the mind that transcends every part of our lives – from our personal lives to our social and financial lives.

In other to be successful in this information age, open-mindedness is non-negotiable because the age is filled up with innovation and only open-minded people are able to take opportunities when time and chance present it to them.

Identifying opportunities is one of the benefits of keeping an open mind which plays an important role for most businesses, artist, and creators who are in a search of new ways of doing things.

We are unable to see opportunities once our minds are closed to a certain thing. When our minds are open to the fact that opportunities can come in different dimensions, our minds will be prepared and be able to see them when they come knocking.

Open-mindedness allows our minds to be ready so that when innovative ideas are shown to us, we don’t just throw them away and say that they are nothing, instead we calm ourselves to gain more insight on them so as to know what it is really about.

5. It allows us to make and accept mistakes

The benefits of keeping an open mind wouldn’t be complete if learning to accepting our mistakes does not count among the benefits.

Before anyone can get an insight into a new paradigm of reasoning, one needs to keep an open mind first in other to understand and assimilate.

Also, accepting our mistakes needs a lot of open-mindedness in other for us to reach the realm where we begin to take responsibly for our lives.

Being flexible is not just a process we think in our mind, it is also one which we show in our actions and reactions when situations arise.

When we are open in our minds, we will have the chance to learn to accept that making mistakes and failing at a thing is not really a mistake.

We will begin to view mistakes and failure as an opportunity to learn and we will begin to not only accept our mistakes but also accept the mistakes of others as part of life.

6. It allows for dynamic thinking

Dynamic thinking as one of the benefits of keeping an open mind means that there is flexibility of thought in an open mind.

It’s not enough for the mind to be just open, it has to also learn how to optimally utilize it.

Open-mindedness allows us to think beyond what we already know and have experienced about a concept in life.

It says if there is a world of possibilities, how then can I tap into that world? That is dynamic thinking.

It’s not enough to keep the mind open, sometimes we need to go out and fetch the ideas we want to see.

When you are of the belief that virtually anything is possible in life and any outcome is realizable, this is the moment you begin to have a look at life from a new angle – meaning that you are open to new ideas, open to unlearn and relearn, open to develop and improve on a previously upheld view, open to thinking outside the box, – a thought that goes beyond the boundaries where your supposed current mind exists.

Being dynamic allows us to try to find solutions to problems by looking at them through different angles.

So, if you aren’t open-minded, you will be limiting the extent to which you will be able to find solutions.

7. It gives us freedom

When we aren’t worried about what can go wrong and its follow up repercussions, we tend to be free from the after worries – this is one of the benefits of keeping an open mind.

An open mind allows us the idea to focus more on finding solutions rather than worries.

And in cases where it seems like we are unable to find the answers, it tells us that there will always be a way out.

So instead of our blood pressure going high and low because of an issue we found difficult to solve, we will find ourselves relaxed and calm knowing that anything can happen to make the problem pass.

It’s just life, we need to understand it to live it right. Everything passes by and away.

Sometimes we dedicate our time to focus on our problems and give little or no time to the possibility of finding solutions.

Keeping an open mind will allow us to be open to understanding that focusing on a problem does not in any way solve the problem rather it gets in the way of us trying to find a solution.

8. It boosts our self-confidence

Boosting our self-confidence is one of the benefits of keeping an open mind in the sense that it allows us to have a better understanding of what keeps our spirit low in different situations in life.

Being open-minded creates room in our minds for change and more change. Because the more we learn, the more confident we become.

Keeping an open mind enables us to form a new opinion about life and allows us to stand on them when we are questioned as we have been able to understand its true essence and significance in life.

The more we learn about life, the more we grow, meaning no one can make us feel less of who we are. All we need to do is to open our minds up and allow new teachings that can help us grow.

Our knowledge about life boosts our self-confidence, as the sense and knowledge of what should and should not, gives us the boldness to stand strong, talk strong, stay strong and live strong.

9. It allows us to see the need to help others

Helping others is also one of those benefits of keeping an open mind that we cannot neglect as it is an essential part of us living a fulfilled life on earth.

Greed is one strong thing that open-mindedness can help unlock. Being too greedy is usually as a result of a person’s reasoning perspective, that is -the way we see life and think it should be lived’.

Some people hate to help others, they love to be worshipped and praised and they feel it is the best way of life, in their hearts and minds they feel it will make them remain relevant, so they never share, never donate either part of their wealth of knowledge for any positive course that benefits others.

Don’t get it wrong, a little greed is not bad, the great king Solomon said, ‘avoid all extremes’.

Don’t be too good, don’t be too bad, don’t be ‘too’ anything, that also means don’t be too greedy.

The word ‘too’ is a risky word. At some point, our minds can open up to make us think and see life differently and then we find ourselves doing things differently like helping others around us when we are able to.

10. It teaches us to learn to let go

Learning let go is one of the many benefits of keeping an open mind in life.

When we are open in our minds, we will learn that not everything is worth fighting for.

And again, we all know that to concede defeat and to say sorry at times can be a very difficult thing to do, especially when we feel in our minds that it’s not necessary for us to do such, and more when we aren’t the ones at fault.

But sometimes, situations might demand us to say sorry even when we know that we are not wrong.

Being open-minded can allow us to think way beyond the present situation which sometimes lays out a lot of reasons why it is not worth it.

For one to even begin to think of such, means that the mind is open. It means allowing a new whole understanding to come in which is only possible once we open our minds to let it in.

How to learn to keep an  open mind

To fix a closed mind, it must learn the benefit that comes from being open. At least it needs to be convinced that something much better is out there for it.

There are so many other benefits that come with being openminded.

If you want to live better, you need to see that life is beyond what you think, beyond your personal reasoning. And that’s the only way you can form new thoughts.

Bottom-line benefits of keeping an open mind

There is wisdom in being open-minded, it allows you to analyze situations, and it takes you through a thinking process that allows you to analyze and decide.

You might not have given much consideration to the word open-mindedness in your life, I think there is never a right time to think and be conscious about it.

It’s time to get that ego and pride down. It’s time to absorb new ideas and ways of approaching matters, and challenges in different facets of your life, whether at a place of work or at home.

It pays a lot; it sets you on a different life path, different from what you have known in the past. It opens up a lot about life to you.

There are many benefits of keeping an open mind which a lot of us must have encountered throughout different stages of our lives

The moment you become open-minded, you will find the need to learn from every single situation, condition, state or challenge you find yourself entangled in.

Also, your mind might get to a stage where it starts to ask questions such as; why did this happen? How did this happen? What did I learn from this event? How can I fix this problem? This is where we bring in emotions to help guide our thought process.

When you ask such questions, you will see yourself trying to find the answers and when you get them, you will then make some concrete decision on how to follow similar matters in case they repeat.

You only need to stay open to ideas, listen more, think more, understand more, analyze more, and decide better, then you can move from one level of understanding of life to another.

For you to be able to survive in life, you need to innovate the mind, open up the mind, and then you are ready to go all the way up.

Life only opens up to people that open up to it. Keeping an open mind allows life to appear clearer to us while also allowing us to begin to live our best lives.

What other benefits do you think keeping an open mind brings to our lives? Leave a comment below.