Everybody likes to tell you about how open-minded they are, it is almost like they are bragging about this, but is there such thing as being too open-minded? Does it have some disadvantages as well?
This is what we will discuss in this article when being too open-minded is to your detriment.
To be honest, there are not many disadvantages compared to advantages, and not many people have this problem compared to the opposite of being close-minded. However, there are tons of articles on the internet about the benefits of being open-minded, but not too many about the downsides.
Before going forward, I want to say that what I will talk about in this article applies to people who are really too open-minded, not to those who like to say it but aren’t. Many people like to exaggerate things when they consider them a quality, especially if we talk about the work environment or an interview.
Can you be too open-minded?
Yes, you can be too open-minded when this affects your life and decisions without any good outcome. I will discuss this later in this article to clarify it when we talk about the disadvantages of being too open-minded.
Being open-minded is the ability to change your mind when you see data and facts showing you other options and not dismiss any information without additional research. However, this might lead to changing your mind too often and not focusing on a thing long enough.
You know the saying “Too much of a good thing can be a bad thing”, in some situations it is true for being open-minded.
What are the disadvantages of being too open-minded?
As I said before, there are not many disadvantages to being too-open minded but still, there are a few, and you should have them in mind when you are open-minded.
1. Wasting time
This is the biggest disadvantage of being too open-minded, it might not be as bad as the others, but it happens more often.
If you push yourself to be open-minded and listen to people that talk about conspiracy theories or things you don’t really want to hear, the biggest downside is that you are losing precious time.
When you add the fact that those kinds of people usually talk a lot about their things since not many people take them seriously, it is a formula for wasting hours and hours. It is like putting gas on the fire when you listen to them and give them feedback, even if you don’t believe in what they say.
Sometimes you have to be decisive and say that you are not interested in some topics and understand that it doesn’t mean you are not open-minded, but rather you have some priorities regarding how you spend your time.
2. Lack of focus
Being too open-minded and listening to all thoughts and ideas around you is very distracting. You might lose focus on what is important.
So, sometimes you have to keep your mind close to be able to focus on finishing a project or something that you really want to finish. If you always get distracted with new ideas, new directions, you might end up starting different projects, hobbies, and so on, but not putting enough effort into any of them.
I know people that start a business, and instead of focusing on how they can make it work, they are listening to other business ideas and changing their minds all the time. One might say that they are open to different types of business, sometimes ones that contradict why they have chosen the first business, but in reality, they are getting distracted.
3. Contradicts your core values and beliefs
Being too open-minded might make break your own core values and beliefs from time to time.
Some people are very persuasive and even manipulative when it comes to their ideas, and they might make a weaker person trust them even if they don’t align with their values and beliefs.
I know people who were scammed by people who made them feel guilty because they were not open-minded and made them accept their “opportunity” only to be open-minded and not refuse something without researching. Of course, research was done on the owner channel and platform.
So if something contradicts your core values and beliefs sometimes, it is better to be close-minded.
4. Short-term results
Being too-open minded might have some short-term results to the detriment of the long-term results.
Here is a tricky disadvantage of being too-open minded. The thing that we like new beggings and starting new things might make us more open-minded to different things and opportunities that we might not actually need.
It is true for relationships, business, careers, and so on. Most of them have a point where it can become monotonous, and you need to make the extra effort and come up with new ideas to change this, but it is much easier to look for alternatives that will make you more excited in the beginning, but we all know that they will all come to that point again.
Some might say that they are open-minded when looking for new beginnings; in reality, they are looking for short-term results and easy wins.
Read Also: Losing Friends During Personal Growth
Conclusion
I hope this article helped you and made you understand that there are some actual disadvantages of being too open-minded. It might sound cool to others that you are that open-minded, but it can affect your life in the long run, so make sure you have your priorities, beliefs, and values well set before being open-minded.
