The art of not knowing everything

It's a lot harder than it sounds. I'm very tempted to assume that my perspective on life, the world and everything is sound, consistent and the most perceptive and worthwhile that there is. This occurs on multiple levels.

I've found that I have a habit of trying to defend my paradigm of thought, instead of opening myself up to understand things from another's perspective, and thus enriching my thinking. But of course, it's not just about enriched thinking, but enriched relationships where I can really respect the other person's views and treat that person and their thoughts with tenderness and love.

I find that the less I am protecting myself or my paradigm of thinking in any given conversation, the more genuinely I engage in meaningful interaction with that person (given a safe context, of course).