Narrow-minded people are not evil. They just have a limited sphere of thinking. While some of these people become narrow-minded after being exposed to harsh realities of life, others just lack education, varied experiences and most importantly – unconditional acceptance and love they deserve. Narrow-mindedness is not a permanent condition. You just need to do an honest self-analysis and start working on your thinking habits, one step at a time.
You tend to generalize everything:
Every human being has the tendency to generalize an opinion. For example, if a handful of people from Italy were unkind to you during your trip to the United States, you may or may not generalize that all Italians are rude, dangerous and obnoxious. A narrow-minded person almost certainly chooses to generalize in such cases. Some common examples are – all gold medalist athletes used performance enhancing drugs, all political leaders are corrupt and all government officials take bribes etc.
You’re judgmental:
Having pre-conceived notions about people, events and several other things without valid reasons is a common sign of narrow-mindedness. If you judge a person, movie, book, leader, officer or anyone else very quickly, it’s possible your mind has become habitual to ‘presume’ than to analyze and discover. A narrow-minded person tends to see a dozen things the same way he found the first one.
You do not discuss your core beliefs with anyone:
While some people just like to keep their core beliefs and ideas about life to themselves, there are many others, who keep them from friends, family members and relatives simply because they cannot stand contrary arguments. If you’ve never discussed such things with ‘anyone’ in your life, you’re probably rolling down a narrow lane in your mind, unwilling to ride on a wide highway with others.
You are unable to socialize at work or anywhere else:
Even if you’re slightly narrow-minded, it’s possible you are incapable of socializing at work, parties or even at home. Introverts too are like that. However, they enjoy listening to others, laugh with people at work and hold no grudges against anyone. On the other hand, a narrow minded person either finds fellow-men and women too stupid or too unworthy to socialize with.
You enjoy pin-pointing the shortcomings:
A large number of people enjoy pin-pointing wrongs in the society a lot more than they appreciate things that are just as they should be. Even if you consider the last 48 hours of your life, you can easily analyze if you’ve been mostly whining or feeling grateful. If you have been complaining about corruption, public callousness, poverty, crimes etc. 20 times a day, you’ve probably narrowed down your thinking to everything negative in this world. This is one of the easiest signs of narrow-mindedness that you can recognize.
Author and Credits: Arun Thakur