What is the Value in being Open Minded If you have read much of what I have written you are pretty much aware that I am not a fearful person, meaning that I don’t react to events in my life from a point of fear. Faith has pretty much defined how I react to life. With that being said, One of my others places of reference is being open minded. The one thing that I have always had a strong concern for is not being open minded and missing out on an outstanding learning experience or life altering concept or opportunity. When I meet people I enter the exchange with and open and clear mind always evaluating body language, eye contact and verbiage. I try to understand background, life altering events and anything along the way that will give me a better and clearer understanding of how a person reacts. We all have lived varied and different lives so each person has a unique set of details in their life that makes them react differently to events and opportunities presented to them on a daily basis. Being open-minded gives a person an opportunity to learn at every turn in their lives. You see things that others choose to close out and don’t even give the other point of view a chance. The mere existence of this blog is a testament to my open-mindedness. Listening to Ophra Winfrey and Joel Olsteen doing an interview was my inspiration for this blog and my book, had I closed my eyes and ears to the possibilities that lie ahead I would not be on this extraordinary journey that I am traveling. When I look back on my life and access the things I have done and the joys and sorrow along the way, I am in awe of the things I would have missed had it not been for being open minded and receptive to the possibilities of the unknown opportunities that lie in the unknown future. One of the greatest joys, pleasure and experiences has been the meeting of my current wife after the loss of my wife of 35 years to ovarian cancer. If I had not reacted to an ad she had placed on Match.com we would not have be together now, married and as happy an fulfilled as two people could ever be, she is a prayer answered and a gift from God to me. She has added tremendous value to my life and that of my children and grand children, but most of all to my life, she is an encourager of the magnitude unknown to me ever before in my life. I shutter to think that if I didn’t have open mindedness what I would be missing out on, my life would certainly not have taken the course it has without her love and support. The one thing I realize in all this is that open mindedness leads us in a direction that can have extreme benefits and life altering opportunities, if we let it. On the other side of the coin is that closed mindedness has a safe feel to it for many people, don’t take a chance, don’t experience things they might be harmful to you. So it becomes a matter of the mindset of expectations. My premise with expectations has been that they are ruled by either moving forward based in faith or be closed down by fear, which is a choice we make.
