Openess

Introduction to Openness
How firmly committed are you to the ideas and beliefs that govern your thinking and guide your behavior? Some people trust their current ideas and beliefs the way a climber trusts the mountain; whichever way they move, whether the climb is on a familiar trail or over new ground, there is something solid beneath them, something they count on.

For others, new ideas, new solutions to old problems, new beliefs that replace tired convictions are like welcome wind in their sails. They can hardly wait to tack in a new direction and ride a new idea through uncharted waters. If it's new, it's interesting, and they're ready to explore.

The following paragraphs describe your responses to new ways of thinking and believing. How do you handle new information? Are you more like the climber on a familiar mountain or a sailor with a tiller in hand and a fresh breeze to propel you? How you integrate and process new information about the world and about others is a core aspect of your personality.



On the Openness Dimension you are:
CONTENT


Words that describe you:
Sensible
Realistic
Conventional
Sincere
Simple
Firm
Earnest



A General Description of How You Approach New Information and Experiences
You find that you are usually more comfortable with ideas and beliefs that you have held for a long time. These values, which for you are tried-and-true, provide you with practical solutions to life's problems, and with straightforward ways of engaging in intellectual discussions and debates. You've tested these positions over time, you know them well, they work for you, and you trust them. You like the way these solutions provide consistency and value to your life.

You've always been teachable as well. Whether in textbooks or classrooms, or through a wide variety of personal and interpersonal experiences, you've explored and tested the values and ideas you hold dear. Along the way you've grown to recognize ideas and beliefs that fit with your life. When this happens, you open yourself to learning what it is that this can teach you. Most of the time evaluating new information strengthens what you know and trust; the "next new thing" usually proves too shallow or too impractical to dislodge you from what has served you so well.



Negative Reactions Others May Have Toward Your Style of Thinking
Not everyone will be thrilled by your commitment to the tried-and-true, and your practical solutions to problems of all sorts. Some people are in flight most of the time, leaving behind where they've come from and peering into whatever brand-new thought or experience they come across. They live for these flights of fancy. So they may find your commitment to the tried-and-true very trying and even boring. So be it; you won't be a companion on their journey. And that is fine with you. You will likely continue on being quite satisfied with your approach to important beliefs and ideas.



Positive Responses Others May Have Toward You
Despite some negative reactions toward your style of thinking, many others will appreciate in you the combination of a steadiness of mind and openness to occasional change. They will find your practical solutions clear and accessible in an intellectual environment that is too often fuzzy and lacking clear values. They will come to trust you as someone who is not swayed by every new intellectual wind that blows, nor tantalized by some imaginative belief or value that seems attractive at first but usually proves in the long run to be unreliable as a guide in life. In a complicated and fractious intellectual climate they will find your clear thinking, your practical ideas and your down-to-earth solutions to problems to be a great relief.


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