I don’t know about you but for me there’s hardly a day that goes by wherein some well intended will think to send me a link to a website or YouTube video. I do my best to at least visit or briefly watch as many of these as my time and tolerance permit. There’s a wide range of topics directed my way and I’m grateful for the spectrum of humanity that I’m exposed to. I have to admit that I never would have found half of any of this on my own. Not only that, but I couldn’t have imagined, no matter how hard I tried, some of the stuff that people get in to.
I’m sure it’s the same for you.
A goodly percentage of the links sent to me attempt to present information in a promotional way. Whether its a nutritional system, a new exercise routine or piece of equipment, a yoga seminar, a meditation practice, or a documentary on a war or a religion, there’s one thing they all have in common: There’s an undeniable certainty, not just a confidence, but a real conviction, conveyed about the product or point of view being offered.
There’s something inherently attractive about that type of certainty. In our current world of endless possibilities, seeing or hearing someone who has an unshakeable conviction about something is remarkably appealing.
It is the art and essence of the sell.
We know this…and still we want to believe that something can and will deliver exactly what is being promised…or that the person truly does believe in what they are saying as certainly and as deeply as they appear to.
Unfortunately, for most of us today, being ‘sold’ on something has become synonymous with being ‘fooled’.
And it’s funny, whenever I’m in a conversation with someone who seems dead certain about whatever it is their talking about, even if I’m not in agreement with them, I can get to wondering if perhaps I haven’t overlooked something. Creating this moment of curiosity, of hesitation, is another necessary element of the sell.
They teach this stuff in sales classes. They taught it at Trump U.
Whether we’re listening to a backyard opinion of a neighbor or listening to a candidate for public office, the attraction of certainty is as powerful as it is misleading. It can get decent people to wondering.
This is not a bad thing or a weakness.
I’ve come to understand that an open minded person will have those types of wondering thoughts. It is in the very nature of the open minded to entertain new and differing points of view. That’s the process through which any person can develop, deepen and wizen.
Sadly, the closed minded person is always locked down, unreachable and adamant about staying where they are. It doesn’t make them a bad person but rarely does it make them a happy person.
An open minded person isn’t necessarily confused, muddled or unclear. Nor do they lack for conviction, passion or backbone. They simply accept that life itself is a work in progress, that learning never ends and that more, indeed, will always be revealed.
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