but, not so much that your brains fall out.

I’m passing this one along…my Mom has said this to me all of my life.  And it makes so much sense, when you stop rolling your eyes upon hearing it!

Gather information from all sides.  Don’t be stubborn about your point of view to the detriment of you learning anything new. (I’m rhyming!)

When you welcome other people’s viewpoints you are telling them that you value what they have to say, their experiences and their intelligence.  Contrary to this, by shutting people down when they are trying to present an opinion that may differ from yours, you are being disrespectful, and in essence telling the other person to “go fly a kite”, in not so nice terms.

Just be careful that you don’t end up being fickle.  Unable to stand your ground.  Bouncing around from ideology to ideology because someone keeps presenting a stronger argument that than the last one you heard.

Make sure that you aren’t so open-minded that you lose your head and your conviction to stand for what you believe.