Tuesday July 8, 2014 #642
“A man who views the world the same at fifty as he did at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life.”
~Muhammad Ali
We all know people like this: unable to open their minds to new ideas and inexorably wedded to outdated and often factually incorrect beliefs. Out of stubbornness, fear, or misinterpretation of religious or other teachings, they refuse to evolve their thinking even in the face of irrefutable evidence or new thinking. Is it possible you are guilty of this in some aspect of your life?
In its most benign form, this inability to change one’s opinions and habits shows up as unwillingness to learn a new piece of technology (phone, computer program, etc.), or buy a different brand of a familiar product (car, coffee, even underwear!). Those are normal but still limiting impacts of this problem. Are you “stuck” on one or more similar habits? Do you really want to be like that annoying grandparent who refuses to learn how to Skype?
Where it gets serious is when we are unable to evolve our thinking and see that our beliefs in our employer, our partner, our politics, and even our religion need to be challenged. Not necessarily to be changed, but to ensure continued alignment.
If we are truly unable, as Ali quotes, to evolve our thinking over our lifetime – we have truly wasted our life.
I challenge you to reflect on how or if you allow your thinking to evolve. Do you allow or even seek out alternative viewpoints? Do you check your habitual affiliations against how they are (or are not) evolving and the changing world around us? Take this moment and consider if and where you need to challenge your potentially limiting beliefs.