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Success Advice

Open-Mindedness Is Damn Sexy.

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The other day I had a thought. I thought to myself, “Man I love open-mindedness. It’s so damn sexy and it get’s me excited.”

Immediately I was embarrassed with myself. To find a personality trait to be sexy instead of the physical features is a little weird.

I’m a little weird so that’s cool.

What created this somewhat interesting thought in my mind was an interaction with a young lady. I was chatting with her about a business opportunity. I was painting the blue sky vision I had for what could create a seriously cool business.

Normally people want to shut down your ideas if they’re too “out there.”

She didn’t. This young lady was open-minded.

Rather than think I was a madman on some endless rant, she kept an open mind. She gave me the benefit of the doubt and listened.

While she may not have agreed with the idea I was presenting, she didn’t shut it down like so many would have. She refused to allow her assumptions to take over.

What was also cool was that she brought a positive mindset to the conversation. Instead of thinking the worst, she assumed the best until proven otherwise.

The hack I’ve seen work so well in business and in life is this:

Open-mindedness.

It’s the one hack that makes you appear different to everybody else, on another level, portrays you as empathetic, and most of all, it makes you an optimist by default.

This hack of open-mindedness is used in sales all the time. When you go to buy a new TV from the local store, the salesman rarely says “I can’t do that price.”

The salesman will always say “Let me see what I can do.”

There’s no guarantee with this statement. What you get instead is a promise of open-mindedness.

Guaranteed that if the salesperson that ends up selling you the TV has the trait of open-mindedness, you’ll want to deal with them again.

Why?

Open-mindedness is sexy. Here’s why:

Optimism and open-mindedness are linked.

What comes with open-mindedness is optimism.

“Open-mindedness overrides your reptilian brain that wants to shut down everybody else and assume the worst. Open-mindedness is a promise to yourself that you’ll start from a position of seeing the best”

What’s been a real game-changer for me is that when I commit to being open-minded, I don’t rush to any particular judgment too quickly. I reserve judgment until the end which means I end up making a more informed decision. Informed decisions lead to better results.

Options stem from open-mindedness.

Having an open-minded approach to life creates options. It’s a carefree way to live and it forces you to have a growth mindset instead of a fixed mindset. When you’re dealing with people and they know that you want to give them options, they feel good. They feel like you care.

Knowing that the path forward is flexible meets our human needs of both certainty, uncertainty and significance. That’s why when you meet someone who is open-minded like I did, you feel drawn to them.

Your assumptions matter.

Jumping to conclusions without knowing the full story puts you in a weak position. Open-minded people slap assumptions in the face. When you assume, you tell us all that you know everything. You put yourself in an imaginary elitist class that has figured out the answer to every human problem.

What you’ll learn is that no one has all the answers.

“The people you think are crazy successful have just as many problems as you. The only difference is they’re committed to working them out and they know that problems are going to be a part of life forever”

The opposite of being open-minded is to have an out of control ego. Your ego makes you close-minded and you fail to see what’s right in front of you.

Listening is at the core.

Being listened to feels good. We’re naturally all drawn to people that listen to us. You can’t be open-minded without hearing the full story. Being open-minded is a commitment to hear people out and understand them.

If Elon Musk hadn’t spent time with people who’d worked on the NASA space program, then he may have never believed it was possible to create Space X and do it better.

“When we listen without applying the harsh filter of judgment straight away, we hear chunks of information that otherwise would have appeared as white noise that carried no meaning”

You’ll find these sexy creatures are positive.

That’s right. Open-minded people are positive by default because they don’t let their human programming of finding the negative in everything take over. You have to be positive to be open-minded. Many of us jump at shadows because rather than be open-minded, we look for the problem or threat first.

We can become so focused on the threat that we become blind to the fact that most things that appear to our mind to be dangerous are in fact not.

There are no absolutes.

Nothing is 100% one way. There’s always an outlier. There’s always an exception to the rule. In fact, there are no rules. Rules are made up by people who are closed-minded. What has been done before doesn’t have to be done the same way forever.

As a human race, we can’t move forward unless we throw away the rules. Rules lead us down the same path which could change, adapt, or even fall apart in the future. Nothing is for certain. No one has all the answers.

***Final Thought***

Be open.
Challenge your own thinking.
Delay casting judgment.
Realize you’re not as good as you think you are.
Listen to what people have to say.

If you do these things, then people will be attracted to whatever it is that you want to do in life. You can’t build Rome all by yourself. You need people and people need you to be open-minded.

That’s a pretty good trade I reckon.

If you want to increase your productivity and learn some more valuable life hacks, then join my private mailing list on timdenning.net

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Success Advice

How Your Beliefs Can Supercharge or Sabotage Your Success

Your life is dictated by beliefs and biases that drive your thinking, behaviors, and decisions

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Your Beliefs Can Supercharge or Sabotage Your Success (1)
Image Credit: Midjourney

Pause for a moment and ponder two pandemic-era beliefs: First, closing schools will control the spread of a serious virus. Second, the consequences of such school closures—particularly social interruption and the prevention of immunity—are worse than becoming sick with the virus. (more…)

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Success Advice

How to Break the Cycles of Mediocrity and Manifest Your Greatness

There is no greatness without becoming and there is no becoming with authenticity

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Image Credit: Midjourney

In just a few weeks, we will be wrapping up 2023. Can you believe it? This year has been absolutely incredible for me.

I have seen amazing doors opened, new relationships formed and I am seeing dreams realized in my life. While this seems like the hallmarks of a great year, this has also been the most challenging year of my life. With all of the change happening in my life, I have been forced out of my comfort zone and challenged to grow in every area of my life.

I can truly say that I have made the most of my moments this year and I have used everything as a catalyst for maximizing my greatest potential.

As a revolutionary leader, I have the pleasure of consulting and advising leaders around the world to fulfill purpose, realize their greatest potential and make an impact.

I want to share some insights with you that will help you to break cycles of mediocrity and manifest your greatness

Everything legal must come through the matrix

I am sure that some of you are wondering why I am using the term matrix. However, what you have to understand is that I am trying to make a highly complex spiritual principle practical to understand.

Regardless of your spiritual beliefs, every life has an origin and I believe that origin is divine and begins with eternity. You are birthed from eternity and into time to fulfill a unique purpose and assignment in your lifetime and generation.

The matrix is simply the portal or vehicle that brings something out of the invisible realm and into tangible form. The problem with much of the teaching today is that it excludes the matrix. We are told to believe that success is instantaneous and overnight.

Nobody talks about how a dream progresses through stages beginning with visualization and ultimately culminating in manifestation. Without a matrix or portal then everything that you attempt to birth and build will be illegal.

The matrix not only makes you legal but it gives you the authority and power to function as the greatest expression of who you were created to be. 

Every matrix has an incubation process

While many people admire and respect me today, I remember a time when nobody knew who I was or the significance of my message. How did I get to where I am today? I got here through an incubation process.

In other words, everything that has been destined for your life is incubating and awaiting a set time of manifestation. The problem is that most people live their entire lives idle and never initiate the incubation process.

What do I meany by that? Most people are living reckless and very few people are living intentionally. I am amazed at the number of people I have conversations with that have no vision, goals or strategies for their lives. They show great promise and they have undeniable potential.

However, without development they will die with their dreams still in them.

Everything that has been destined for your life must be incubated and converted to become realities born to time. 

“Visualize this thing that you want, see it, feel it, believe in it. Make your mental blueprint and begin to build.” – Robert Collier

You must give expression to that which is not yet born to time

When you think about a matrix or a prophetic incubation process, you have to understand that potential is often unrealized and untapped. In other words, your potential is in raw form and your potential cannot serve you as long as it is untapped.

The thing that makes me valuable is that I have the ability to convert potential into power. I have done it in my own life and I have empowered leaders around the world to do the same. How do you convert potential into power?

First, it is important to note that you have to perceive potential. If you cannot perceive your potential then you can never cultivate your potential. In addition, you must take the time to cultivate your potential. We often get excited about our capabilities; however, we never expand our capacity in order to realize our greatest potential.

In other words, the strength of your potential is only discovered through your willingness to stretch. The more we are challenged the more we are empowered to expand our capacity for greatness. Most of all, you must begin to express your potential. The expression of potential is different for every person.

For example, the expression of my potential is best demonstrated through the thoughts, ideas, products, services, books, etc.

For another person the expression of potential may look like a screenplay, artwork, sports, scientific discoveries, medical breakthroughs, etc.

Regardless of the form of expression, I know that you will live empty and unfulfilled until you make the decision to express your potential. The expression of your potential gives voice to your dreams, life to your vision, significance to your moments and activates your true power.

You must manifest your greatness

As a revolutionary thinker and leader, my work has impacted people around the world. I am grateful that my life is a source of empowerment to so many people. However, before anyone could ever benefit from my life, I had to make a non-negotiable decision to become who I was born to be.

I wish I could tell you that this journey is easy and that you will get there overnight. However, in a world that celebrates us for doing we are often criticized for being. As a result, I wasted a lot of time trying to be who other people wanted me to be instead of being who I was born to be.

There is no greatness without becoming and there is no becoming with authenticity. It is through our bravery to be vulnerable that we ultimately manifest our greatness. We do not bless the world by being a duplicate. We bless the world when we honor our difference. When you honor your difference you honor your potential.

Ultimately, your difference is how you manifest your greatness.

When you present anything but your authentic self to the world, you are playing small and you are robbing the world of your significance. Manifesting your greatness requires you to master your gifts.

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Success Advice

Here’s a Young Man’s Antidote for the Uncertainty of the Modern World

Why do a lot of young guys lack confidence in today’s world? 

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We all have been told that confidence is a key factor in achieving success and happiness in life. But what is it exactly? (more…)

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Toxic Leadership: 5 Ways to Identify a Bad Leader

if you have a leader who displays any of the toxic traits, it’s time to move on to greener pastures.

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Let’s be honest, we’ve all crossed paths with a toxic leader in our careers at some point. Unfortunately, while some toxic leaders don’t even bother to hide their behaviour, some know very well how to conceal their true selves behind a strong-built facade. The latter is the most dangerous of the two. (more…)

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