There are three thresholds to be crossed as we move forward in our quests.  The first is Judgement

A life on autopilot or is downloading is a life that doesn’t question ways of seeing, thinking, and doing.  If we hope not to keep repeating the past, we’ll have to interrupt our set ways of seeing, thinking, and acting by suspending judgement.

Moving from judgement to openness will mean looking on and thinking about people and things in new ways: with humility – we don’t know everything; with gratitude – the world is full of so many good things that are becoming visible to us; and, with faithfulness – there are ways to do things that others have already tried and which may be useful to us.

Understood in this way, judgement is about going for quick answers rather than living in slow questions.

We need an open mind to explore the universe of possibilities because it is full of questions, the unknown and mystery.  When we have quick answers we stop searching.  Instead, our aim should be to judge slowly.

The opposite of an opening mind is one becoming more closed, one that looks out on a reducing world, fearful of the bigger and less certain.

Author Umberto Eco reportedly had a library of 30,000 books, most of which he has never read – they were a reminder to him of how much he didn’t know.

SOMETHING TO DO: Choose a book on a subject you wouldn’t normally read, or a TEDtalk on a subject you know little or nothing about, or something equivalent to these.  It perhaps could be something a friend or a colleague or family member is into.  Look for all the things which resonate with you.

RESOURCES YOU MAY ENJOY:
Whatcha Gonna Do With That Duck? by Seth Godin