Are you relating, observing and listening to discover a better pattern of thinking about matters that are troubling for you?  You’ll have to go outside of yourself to learn and to apply what you are learning in a better and different way.  Thinking and behaving the same way as you always have will rarely alleviate the problem you are looking to solve.

Change requires that we approach a situation or problem differently with an open mindset where we look at things as if they were happening for the first time again.  With a closed mindset, we will not change.

You’ll unconsciously make hundreds of decisions today, most of them within the context of only what you have always known and done.  Change up your routine today.  As you explore the decisions you are making, look for the gaps in your knowledge or experiences that present possibilities to be better.  Ask others for their perspective and truly listen, it couldn’t hurt that much to know that you might be able to learn something from another.

“We think we listen, but very rarely do we listen with real understanding, true empathy. Yet listening, of this very special kind, is one of the most potent forces for change that I know.”   —  Carl Rogers  —