Staying Open to New Ideas
Staying open to new ideas can be a lot harder than it sounds. There are some simple mind hacks that can enhance your ability to enjoy trying new things and looking at life in a whole new way. Let’s focus on a few simple tips that make it easy to stay open to new ideas.
3 Tips for Staying Open to New Ideas
1. Remember how it was before. Remember the time before you tried your favorite food? You’d never tasted it before, never enjoyed discovering it, never known how much happiness it could bring to your life. If you had never taken a chance on trying that new food, it wouldn’t be your favorite today.
Life is like that in every aspect. When hesitation starts taking hold, just remember that you may be about to discover one of your new “favorites”. You’ll never know until you try!
2. Ask, “What’s the worst that could happen?” If you’re putting the brakes on moving forward, it might be because you’re expecting the worst case scenario to happen. Catastrophizing is a common problem for many people.
Being prepared for – or actually expecting – negative consequences from making a choice can paralyze you. The unknown can be scary.
- What if I try this new way of doing things and it goes badly?
- What if I change my holiday traditions and my family gets mad at me?
Those questions are both realistic for someone making a choice to do something new or different. Catastophizing would put those questions in more drastic (or irreversible terms), such as:
- What if I try this new way of doing things and it goes so badly that it can never be fixed?
- What if I change my holiday traditions and my family never speaks to me again for the rest of my life?
Do you see the difference? In the first set of questions, we recognize that a choice could have a positive or negative outcome. In the second set, we see a “gloom and doom” mindset that assumes the worst possible outcome, something usually unrealistic or unfixable.
Luckily, when we start to feel nervous about trying something new and recognize that we may be overdramatizing the negative possibilities, it’s helpful to ask ourselves that powerful question:
“What’s the worst that could happen?”
Calmly looking at a new choice and realizing that the worst outcome probably isn’t that bad anyway can make it easier to stay open to new ideas.
3. Spend a day in the life of a child. For children, life is filled with new experiences. Most days of a child’s life hold events and ideas that have never occurred to them before! Children are always ready to do new things because they spend so much of their time doing activities for the first time and being enthralled by the results: so funny, so exciting, so happy, so yummy!
If you find yourself having a hard time thinking about things in a new way, spend a day with your child experiencing things as they do.
Here is a crazy exercise that is so simple and shocking that it’s sure to cause a few revelations in your thinking:
→ Spend 5 minutes being only as tall as a 3 year old.
That’s right, get down on your knees and see everything in your house from the height and perspective of a small child. I do this all the time and am not only amazed by how different everything is, but by how many things in my own house that I’ve never seen!
Be brave today and stay open to new ideas!
17 Comments
Petro
I try to focus more and more on your third tip. I love it how happy and excited my daughter is at the littlest of things, I want that too. I guess deep inside I’m nothing but a big kid 🙂
Kaila @healthyhelperblog!
Great post Danelle!
Gigi
It’s true, we sometimes do build things up so much in our head (not in the good way) that we psych ourselves out of even trying something! I’m also a big fan of shedding adulthood for even a little bit to be a child again – besides, all the fun stuff always happened at the kids table!! Terrific post!
Heather Pfingsten
I love this post because it is all perspective … something that I have been working on adding into my life for months. I am starting to see the benefits of positive perspective. Thank you for reminding us to take a time out, step back, and look at things from a different angle.
caringmom007
Another great post! I love tip 3 spending time & doing things with the kids from their perspective. They love it each time.
Shannon Bradley-Colleary
Danelle I love your suggestions and now I’m off to try to win that tablet!
Leelo R
Great tips and great post! Seeing everything from the hight and perspective of a child is great idea. I have to try it 😛
Cynthia @ You Signed Up For WHAT?!
I love it! Great perspective, I totally needed this read today.
Patranila
Number three is my favorite. I’d have to buy a set of knee pads though!
lilyseymour
What a beautiful child! I like #1 which is taking chances, i’m trying out recording makeup tutorials on YT and i’m not sure how i’ll be accepted because i’m 55yrs old and everyone is so young and beautiful.
daydreamingbeauty
Thank you for this great post! I really like the suggestions in #2. Something I need to take to heart! 🙂
Diana Rodriguez -Entre Compras y El Hogar
Beautiful girl! Love your new ideas, and this is the most important “Spend a day in the life of a child”
Emmy
I’m always afraid to ask What’s the worse that could happen. Usually something bad happens.
strangedazeindeed
These are awesome tips! I agree! It’s all how we ‘see’ things.
Chelle @ Oh Just Stop Already
I ask myself what’s the worse that can happen all the time and it always ends up with me hanging my head in embarrassment. I’m the queen of messing everything up without meaning too lol
Lush-Fab-Glam.com
Love tip 3, I always believe in keeping life fresh and interesting there is always something new to, do see and experience, no matter how old we get.
XO
Danielle @ We Have It All
I love these tips. Especially the last one. Kids are so innocent, I wish we could be more like them. They’re always open to new ideas.