Choosing Curiosity Over Comfort

Honest to goodness, being open and having a learning mindset was not something that came easy to me. I was raised in a culture where being right beat being curious. I avoided anything I wasn't good at for years, rebuffed opposing views, and would even get offended if somebody pointed my error out, even if it was out of kindness. Learning in my book could only happen in a classroom, not through awkward conversations or failures.

Having had a few emotional wall bumps, my realization dawned on me as to how confining that kind of thinking was. I was frozen with fear of change, of being wrong, and frankly, growing. Something was going to have to change. That was the onset of me embracing openness. I started acknowledging when I didn't know something. Instead of pretending to know, I would ask questions; I would listen without interrupting and even started questioning myself! 

The most dramatic shift came when I stopped thinking of feedback as some kind of criticism and started viewing it as a gift. That moment of mindset shift opened up so many areas of my life and possibilities that I hadn't even yet conceived of. I learned to learn, learned to manage stress in healthier ways, and maintained stronger relationships.