Skepticism VS. Openness

The forever battle, good and bad, yin and yang, light and darkness. Some of these epic face-offs are figurative, philosophical even, others are as real as your appointment with the dentist, or your attitude toward some real-life thingy. I mean imagine your inner war when it comes to adopting new things, new people, adopting change for example? Is this change good for me? Should I go with the flow or just go straight against it? While the philosophical face-offs are a great way to start a discussion and kill (read: lose) time, the real ones affect your lives, my dear friends, they mingle their fingers into the very essence of your character, they mess around with your destiny as if it's their own, and if their meddling means success for you, they get all the trumpets and a parade, and if they fail......meh, it's not their ass on the line isn't it?

Imagine yourself, waking up one day and having this fantastic idea that could change the world. You are not completely sure that it will change the world, you are not even sure that the people won't laugh when they hear this idea of yours, but you still have it. So what do you do with it? Do you go for it with all of your heart and strength, as one old Chinese proverb says "Beyond the 9 skies to reach for the moon"?? Or do you imagine yourself failing miserably and hence stay inside of your safety zone where things are just great, and you don't really need/want to become anything more then you are right now?? I guess, from here, you can grasp the scope of the conflict and the repercussions that the decision in this case might bring. Your life can start moving into 2 completely different directions, and that is all because you are in the middle of this epic conflict between your inner skeptic and the horizon of your open mind.

So how do you deal with the changes in your life? If I for once would have to choose between describing myself as a skeptic or as having an open mind, I am most definitely the latter. However, not always. A good, well controlled dosage of skepticism is always welcomed, and life has taught me that there is no better defense mechanism then a bit of skepticism-induced caution. Take a lot of that though, and it will be the break on your dreams, actions, and eventually, your potential. I could go on and on about this, but the forever-explaining Carl Sagan, has put the subject in a nutshell, and as it seems we both have the same views on this matter, here is his dime on finding the balance between skepticism and open-mindedness:

It seems to me what is called for is an exquisite balance between two conflicting needs: the most skeptical scrutiny of all hypotheses that are served up to us and at the same time a great openness to new ideas. Obviously those two modes of thought are in some tension. But if you are able to exercise only one of these modes, whichever one it is, you’re in deep trouble.If you are only skeptical, then no new ideas make it through to you. You never learn anything new. You become a crotchety old person convinced that nonsense is ruling the world. (There is, of course, much data to support you.) But every now and then, maybe once in a hundred cases, a new idea turns out to be on the mark, valid and wonderful. If you are too much in the habit of being skeptical about everything, you are going to miss or resent it, and either way you will be standing in the way of understanding and progress.On the other hand, if you are open to the point of gullibility and have not an ounce of skeptical sense in you, then you cannot distinguish the useful as from the worthless ones. If all ideas have equal validity then you are lost, because then, it seems to me, no ideas have any validity at all.Some ideas are better than others. The machinery for distinguishing them is an essential tool in dealing with the world and especially in dealing with the future. And it is precisely the mix of these two modes of thought that is central to your success. 

Finding the middle ground is,of course, always a solution.In this case however it is not THE BEST solution as you will neither be safe nor excel in your full potential, but as Mr. Sagan puts it, the key is finding the right balance, choosing your battles, and invest yourself fully when the right moment comes.Very often this means that you will be pushing more to the one side then the other, at the same time exposing yourself to that big risk called life, but that is what in my opinion is called living.That is by my definition the part of the journey leading us to the bigger and better versions of ourselves.