Just what does that phrase "Keep an opne mind" mean anyway?

Your boss says it; your parents might say it; anyone attempting to convince you to try something new might say it.

Of course you are keeping an open mind... BUT!

If that BUT is there in your head, then you are NOT keeping an open mind.

We all have preconceived notion of life, of how things are and how they should be. For many people it is difficult to get past those preconceived notions, hence the BUT.

"Once you stop learning you start dying." Albert Einstein

"Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at 80 or 20." Henry Ford

Here are some things to think about:

1. None of us knows everything. When you think you have all the answers then you stop listening, which means you stop learning.
2. Trying new things takes us out of our comfort zone... but that is how we grow and get better.
3. Glass half empty people will look for all the reasons why "the new thing" won't work.
4. Glass half full people will look for the ways to make it work.
5. If "the new way" never worked then our society would never have evolved... and certainly Amazon would not be testing drone deliveries, and companies would not be testing driverless cars!
6. There is something exciting about making something new work.
7. The big rewards come to those who innovate and change, not to those who keep doing the same old same old.
8. Change will happen with or without you.
9. The energy that it takes to fight change is far better spent embracing change.
10. If you can adapt to change once, you can do it again and again. THAT is where the real fun is!

"Progress is impossible without change and those who cannot change their mind cannot change anything." George Bernard Shaw.

Life does not stand still in any profession, in any industry or in any of our lives. Events happen, innovation happens, human interactions happen and therefore change happens. Some of that change will be BIG... but much of the change will be small, and often. You MUST be able to cope with change, to embrace change and to be part of the solution... otherwise, as the saying goes, you become a part of the problem!

"Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won't come in." Isaac Asimov