The one trait that successful people have in common and very few people talk about is the ability to keep an open perspective. Open perspective means having an open mind and being accepting of new ideas. I would argue that 95% of people are not this way. When most people hear new ideas and before even taking the time to think about it they reject the idea.
As an athlete, you need to always be open to new ideas because you never know when someone will tell you something that will change your life. It is the ability to listen, and lock in no matter how contradictory what you are being told is. You need to be ready to learn at all times ad you can’t do that with a closed mind.
A closed mind is arrogant because it already believes that it knows everything. Any new information that threatens its status quo is immediately pushed out as crap. We are going to go over some ways you can do this and the benefits to doing so.
Don’t Get Mad
The first step to opening your perspective is to stop getting mad the second someone says something that differs from your point of view. This is lazy and you will never be great with a mindset like this.
What the immature mind will do is hear new information or hear some truth from another persona and immediately get upset. Once you get upset you take defensive positions and cross your arms as a way of subconsciously protecting yourself.
Once this happens there is no hope for learning. Even if a person has one good thing to say out of 100 things, it is still worth getting that 1 piece of gold. Getting mad and defensive is just about protecting your ego and you don’t benefit at all from it.
Independent Thinking
To think independently is one of the most important things you can train yourself to do in life. When you think independantly it means that you think for yourself. Everything we know we either learned from others or we learned for yourself. The problem is that we often get clouded by things that other people have told us to believe.
Most people struggle with independent thinking because it is much easier to follow the crowd. The second you go against the crowd, what is going to happen is that you are going to happen is you are going to be attacked. People are going to hate you because you think that you can go against what is normal.
Do you think for yourself? Are you able to hear another person’s perspective and think about it before you respond? Do you look for opportunities to learn in the eveyr situation?
A lot of the time we talk quickly because we want to win and prove others wrong. Sometimes though the best strategy is to know someone is wrong but listen anyway. Figure out why they believe what they believe. Then think deeply about it.
When you do this you will start to develop a new perspective. You will understand differences in age, race, gender, occupation, religion, nationality, socioeconomic classes and so much more. These are things people typically fight about because they have no understanding of other people.
Understand Others
When was the last time you spoke with someone who had a totally opposite view from you and yet had a civil conversation? When you see people are able to do this it comes from people who want to understand others. They want to have more perspective on how others think and why they think the way they do.
When you develop these deeper understanding of others, it helps you to understand yourself better, and it makes you a more effective communicator. As well. The reason most people spend most their time with people who think just like them is that it allows us to protect our perspective and life view. The second we start meeting different people we are going to have to fight to prove our perspective is right instead of just learning from them.
Benefit From What People Have to Say
No matter how ridiculous someone else may be, they still present you with an opportunity to learn something. No matter how ridiculous their views. They will tell you all the secrets of their soul and how they really think while they benefit nothing because they never let you speak.
There is so much to gain from wanting to just listen and learn from new perspectives.
Become an Athlete That Knows All of The Secrets
The reason why you want to do all of this as an athlete is because over time you will learn all of the secrets to success. You will listen to fans, coaches, family and even if they only have one golden nugget to offer, you will make sure that you learn from it.
While others are too arrogant to be told they are wrong, or to take instruction, you see the value in it and you profit. The saying “many will be told, few will profit” is because there are so few people who actually take knowledge and run with it. Most people just want to continue doing what they have always done.
If you want to be the greatest athlete you can be it is going to require progeess. The only way to achieve that is to constantly adapt, learn, and apply that knowledge. It is impossible to do this will with a closed mind.
