6 Proven Habits to Improve Your World View
Your world view speaks volumes about who you really are. It impacts your relationships and the types of people you choose to have in your inner circle. It impacts many of your choices and decisions.
Your world view can even affect your career advancement and be a catalyst or an obstacle to your success in life.
Our world view is shaped by upbringing, past experience, education and even the media to a large extent. But sometimes, it can become distorted and prevent us from seeing the bigger picture and our role in it.
To help you develop a balanced, more positive worldview practice the following simple habits.
1. Open up
One of our biggest human failings is that we think our views are the right ones. We cling to them stubbornly and refuse to consider other opinions. The result is that we become close-minded and intolerant.
Keeping an open mind is one of the best habits you can develop. This involves listening to other views without judgment and honestly weighing them up against your own.
Open up to new sources of information, explore ideas that are opposed to your own and really try to understand where they’re coming from.
Seek out a variety of different sources to get a broader perspective of what’s going on in the world to broaden your own horizons.
Keeping an open mind may change a distorted world view and help you form a fairer, more objective one, leading to tolerance, empathy and kindness, making you a better person!
2. Count your blessings
Nobody would disagree that there’s a lot wrong with the world. Yet, there’s also so much to be grateful for. Your health, the great people in your life, a stable job, a happy marriage … these are just some of the things you should foster an appreciation for.
Counting your blessings every day will improve your world view by filling you with optimism and hope. It will change a gloom and doom perspective into one of optimism about the future. It may even motivate you to pursue a cause that will help shape that brighter future.
3. Release toxic emotions
Repressed emotions like anger, jealousy and grudges can impact the way we see the world. These toxic emotions brew and simmer, preventing us from seeing the positive, and creating disillusion and mistrust.
Release toxic emotions with calm confrontations or finding forgiveness through meditation. If your repressed emotions are a result of a difficult emotional trauma, consider seeking therapy.
Make it a habit to consistently release negative emotions and never allow them to build up. Finding closure will bring you peace and an amazing sense of liberation, allowing you to literally see the world with new eyes.
4. Build relationships with difficult people
There are some people we find it hard to like. We see them as rude, inconsiderate, overly critical or plain difficult to get along with.
This may seem counterintuitive but building relationships with these people can change your worldview for the better!
When you make the effort to interact with difficult people without judgment, you develop more tolerance and kindness. Try to gain insight into their thought process and where they’re coming from. Understanding why they hold certain views (even though you don’t agree with them) will definitely broaden your own worldview.
You may also be surprised to find that you actually see eye to eye on a number of things!
5. Explore new cultures
Learn a new language, try a different ethnic cuisine, interact on social media with people from different cultures and travel as much as possible.
These experiences are the best remedy for a biased or limited worldview. They’re a great way to discover that despite our differences, we share many commonalities.
Nothing enriches a world view more than an understanding of how different cultures live and think yet how similar we are in so many ways.
6. Know that you make a difference
Understanding that your life has a greater purpose can really open your eyes to the bigger picture. This means understanding that almost everything you do has an impact outside the scope of your own world.
Every action, from buying an imported item, to the type of clothes you wear can have an impact on someone overseas, or on the environment.
Understanding that all humans are interconnected fosters a sense of responsibility. You become more aware of how your actions and choices can have an effect on the world.
Conclusion
Your world view is more than just an opinion on political issues or views on religion. It impacts your life and even the people around you in dozens of ways. It impacts your behaviour, thought process and relationships.
It is therefore vital that you develop a tolerant, realistic and balanced perspective that will reflect these qualities in your own personality.
When you adopt these habits, you’ll notice a vast improvement in your worldview. And as your worldview changes for the better, so will you!
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