These days there are some crazy things going on. “You have to be open-minded” you may hear.
Open mind – fine. But you can’t be completely and forever open-minded to everything. Based on what you learned by being open-minded, you eventually have to stand for something.
I stand for good character, financial responsibility, intact loving families, and doing your best at all you choose to do. And I hate illegal (or legal “recreational”) drugs and all they lead to. I see little reason to be open-minded on these issues anymore. I have seen the evidence and it has led me to my beliefs.
We don’t all stand for the same things. But I stand for something – and standing for something is still more than ok.
Integrity and commitment!!! Doing the best you can.
If You Don’t Stand for Something…You Will Fall For Anything!!
Love , loyalty, honor, respect, and obedience! Always try to get better on all five things I stand for .
Something my dad taught me that I always try to instill is Respect and Responsibility. Which you would think is something easier done than said but so many of our societal problems are people not taking the blame or acknowledging when they are wrong and it leads to a cycle of never being able to grow by learning how to be better. Respect is so powerful where yes, you may not agree with someone but when you are standing up for what you think is right there comes a fine line on still respecting that person and their beliefs. I think that an open minded person is someone who is able to listen to the other side and understand why they feel what they feel and that doesnt mean agreeing with them but at the very least respecting why they may think/feel that way and taking the responsibility to express their opposing opinion in a responsible way where they can be proud of how they communicated and expressed themselves.
Love this!!!
It’s natural to form beliefs about the world based on observation. These are mental shortcuts called heuristics, and we use these to quickly decide how to feel about something when we face a similar situation. This is human nature and serves us well most of the time. However, we must be open to changing our minds based on new information if we want to have a clearer picture. Perhaps the evidence we used to form our original belief was incomplete or misinformed. Confirmation bias, seeking only evidence that supports your current beliefs, can be a dangerous thing, leading to poor nutrition philosophies, divided politics, and even terrorism. So while it can be great to stand for something, it’s often useful to be open to the (very real) possibilities that we are wrong, or that opposing views also have validity. “I urge you to be curious enough to want to understand how the people who see things differently from you came to see them that way.” – Ray Dalio. A related concept from Derek Sivers is “useful, not true.” He argues, beliefs are not true, but they can be useful.
“If you don’t stand for something you will fall for anything.” Peter Marshall
Larry, I stand with you on all counts that you mentioned and likely on many that you didn’t mention. We have to stand on those time-tested principles that lead to productivity, good health, success and happiness. The statistics are all there and many books were written on all of the above. Anyone that disputes time-tested knowledge is simply operating in the theoretical realm. Sometimes it feels like those in power just make choices and decisions with no regard for previous proven failures of the same methods. Socialism is case in point. It’s never worked but people still insist on trying, over and over and over…
Tanner, what you speak of sounds very much like, “Seek first to understand, and then to be understood”. You are correct in that we should never assume that we have absolute knowledge of any subject. We can be experts and have the best knowledge currently available but we should always be seeking a better way.
Do I ever agree with you! Great comments everyone.