Open Mindedness

By doing this, I will be adhering to the following spiritual principles:
Rationality, Integrity, Independence, Honesty, Justice, Productiveness and Pride.

From these will naturally follow OPEN MINDEDNESS, Courage, Optimal State Management, Willingness, Conscience, Imagination, Self-Awareness, Style, Grace and (expletive) Attitude!

Well, I now realize that it has been almost six months since my last entry into this blog, so, obviously I have not been very diligent. Since my last entry, I have made a fairly major career change.

While remaining in the same industry, my new role is quite different from the one that I left. In continuing along the topic of taking individual parts of my personal mission statement, as blog entries, I arrive at the topic of OPEN MINDEDNESS. It is interesting timing for me to be speaking of this.

It is a trait, which is sometimes associated with having no coherent philosophy and being open to any new idea, without having a rational filter with which to evaluate them, thus jumping potentially from contradiction to contradiction like a ship without a rudder or sails being led in whatever direction the wind or current takes it.

On the other hand, even when being consistent to principles, one can make errors, and with those same principles, find the means to correct those errors and come to a greater understanding of reality.

What I mean by open mindedness is continually evaluating conclusions, to determine if they continue to stand up to logic, given the addition of new knowledge, to what one was aware of when first drawing those conclusions.

In Galt's speech, he points out that, using logic, when two people disagree, one will be right and one will be wrong, but no one loses, as, if the person who is wrong has made an error of cognition, he can only benefit from learning from the other.

In my previous role, I had set short and long term goals, and I felt that I had not yet achieved my full potential in this role. I'd often told people that the reason I was staying in the role was that I hadn't yet accomplished what I had set out to do, and that if and when I ever made a change, I would do so only after I felt I had reached my goals.

I felt that making a change before that, was akin to failure, even though I had questioned on a number of occasions whether my goals were truly realistic, at least for me.

Only by stepping out of that role, could I ever have gained a new perspective, in which I now believe, that sometimes, it may be a matter of not being in the role that truly uses your greatest strengths. Einstein said something to the effect, that everyone is a genius, but you shouldn't judge a fish by his inability to climb a tree.

One could certainly accuse me of rationalizing giving up before I reached my goals, but, and I know this may not seem entirely rational, but as I am entering the third month in this new role, I truly feel like this is a far better fit. I'm learning new things every day, which is something I enjoy and excel at. I am getting an opportunity to use my analytical side far more, as well. I feel more passionate about what I'm doing than I have in a long time, In other words, I'm having a riot!

Also, my former role, for the last several years, increasingly included a growing need to be a compliance officer, and all indications were that this trend was to continue growing exponentially in the future. This included enforcing a regulatory environment, with which I felt no sympathy, in fact quite the opposite. A growing number of people in our industry feel this way, and there are definitely signs of Atlas Shrugging as people choose to retire earlier, and are sometimes reluctant to bring in sons an daughters into the industry.

What I've always loved is being able to provide value to entrepreneurs striving to success, and to clients who desire to achieve long term, rational financial goals, and this is where my focus is, in in this new role.

So I'm referring to open mindedness, in the sense of actually considering and deciding to make a change which I had previously thought of as "giving up", when now, I am increasingly convinced it was a matter of making a rational decision of aligning myself better with my strengths and values.

It is true that all worthwhile endeavours will be challenging, and the rhetoric of not giving up until one reaches a goal certainly has great validity, but if it begins to feel as though the challenges outweigh the passion for the goals, it may be wisdom, to consider if there is a misalignment (as in a bad romantic relationship).

Ultimately my goal is to achieve personal excellence, and whatever career I choose is simply the vehicle to achieve that. I am now feeling as though I am in a new vehicle that suits me better, and I am more committed than ever to the ultimate goal of achieving personal excellence!

Thanks for reading.