In this episode, your host Misty Jayne, a life and money empowerment coach, dives deep into the transformative power of being open to new ideas. In this episode, Misty shares her personal journey from rejecting new perspectives to embracing them, and how this shift has unlocked countless opportunities in her life.
Embracing new ideas, Finding creativity in silence, Personal growth and curiosity, Overcoming fear of change, Letting go of control, Life and money empowerment coach, Active listening tips, Cultivating curiosity, Entrepreneurship journey, Starting Messy podcast, Transformative power of new perspectives, Creating white space for creativity, Practicing active listening, Importance of diverse viewpoints, Embracing failure for growth
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Welcome to the Starting Messy Podcast where chaos and courage come together to create magic. On this show, we're flipping the script on perfectionism and embracing the messy imperfect journey of entrepreneurship. I'm your host Misty Jane, a life and money empowerment coach for people who are obsessed with personal growth. My guests and I are sharing the truth behind what it means to start messy and why it's worth the leap. Because let's be real, all the best stories start with a little chaos. Welcome back to another episode of the Starting Messy Podcast. So today I want to dive into a topic that means a shit ton to me. And it is the power of being open to new ideas. Now I spent like a good portion of my life rejecting new ideas. I had that mentality of this is just who I am. And I know that you can relate. I think in a lot of areas, a lot of us have felt this way at various times about various topics, right? This attitude of yeah, this is just who I am. I don't need to change that. I don't need to grow. I don't need to hear different perspectives. It was almost like a badge of honor, but in reality, it was actually just me shielding against the unknown. It was this fear of change or this fear of understanding something that actually made me feel super uncomfortable. But as I've grown, I've become more aware of how little that way of thinking was actually serving me in literally all aspects of my life. The thing is it's like super easy to get comfortable in our routines, our beliefs and our ways of doing things. Especially when everyone around us, everyone that we surround ourselves with have the same viewpoints as we do. Change can be intimidating and it's natural to want to stick with what we know. But here's the thing, being open to new ideas, perspectives and ways of being has opened up so many opportunities for me, both personally and professionally. So let's break this down a little bit. When I talk about rejecting new ideas, I'm referring to that knee-jerk reaction we often have when we're presented with something unfamiliar. It's that voice in our heads that's saying, "That's not for me, fuck that," or "I've always done it this way." This mindset can be incredibly limiting. So a perfect example, this past December, I realized that I was feeling stuck. I wasn't feeling creative, I couldn't really get my thoughts organized to be able to record podcasts, put content out, to be able to relate and spread my message the way that I wanted to do, the way that I wanted to do that. So I realized that what was happening is I was consuming more than I was creating. I told myself that I needed more information, but what I actually needed was more white space. I told myself that I was looking for inspiration, but what I was actually doing was procrastinating. So you may have heard me in past episodes talk about not being woo-woo, "How meditation and things along those lines did not work for me." Well, what I realized in this time, it's that it wasn't not working for me. I just wasn't giving it a full chance and understanding the purpose. When I started getting quiet, and what I mean by getting quiet is I started taking walks without music or without a podcast. I started taking baths with just instrumental music, no words. And I started actually just sitting in silence, like literally like, "Okay, let's try this meditation thing out. I'm just going to sit here." It was not easy at first. It was super uncomfortable, but what happened blew my mind. I could actually hear my own thoughts for once, because when we're constantly consuming other people's ideas and beliefs, and we always are more prone to listen to the ones that are closest to what we already believe in, we're constantly looking for validation that what we believe and what we feel is right. So when I started getting quiet, what happened was I could actually hear my own thoughts. I actually found my creativity. I found my voice. I found exactly what I was looking for outside of myself. I was covering it up with someone else's thoughts for so long. I didn't even realize how much I was actually silencing myself. This experience was a turning point for me, and it made me realize that being open to new ideas doesn't mean that you have to accept every single one exactly how it comes to you. Meditation for me isn't creating a shrine and sitting around these crazy amounts of incense. But I do have some incense now, okay? I have incorporated that, but it doesn't have to look that way. It can look like a quiet walk walking down the street. It could look like turning the music off in your car on the way home. It can look like just finding white space in your life where you are not listening to my voice or other people's voices on the internet. You are just listening to yourself. So it's about being curious, right? It's about exploring different possibilities, and it's not letting the fear of change hold you back because by me saying, "I'm not woo-woo, meditation isn't for me," I never actually understood what it meant to actually listen to myself and open my mind. So if I can leave you with just like one thing right now, it's to never reject new ideas outright. You don't have to accept them either, but getting curious will always take you way further than fear of change ever will. Curiosity is a super powerful tool. It pushes us to explore, to ask questions, to seek out new experiences. When we're curious, we're more likely to discover things that can enhance our lives in ways that we could never imagine. Another example, my personal journey with learning new skills. A few years ago, I went on a retreat where we had to paint. Now I am not a painter, okay? I mean, I can paint some hair, but you give me a canvas and some paint, and I'm like, "What the fuck do I do with this?" And to be honest, I really didn't have like an interest in it. But as always, when I go on these retreats, I approach them with an open mind and definitely pull out all my curiosity. So the idea of this exercise was to let go of perfectionism and just paint to paint. So just start picking up colors and using the paintbrush. Let go of the idea of what you are going to paint. Let go of the idea of the outcome. And if you paint something you don't like, then you just paint over it and continue to paint until you like it. It was a way of letting go of control and enjoying the journey. Now this was something that I needed. This was something that I did not know I needed. I very much have been a control freak majority of my life. So I know that this practice now is something that when I am in a space of trying to find control and trying to focus too much on the outcome and not what is right in front of me and the actions that I need to take, I will put on some good music and I will go paint. And it puts me in this active meditation state where I can just calm myself and I can enjoy it. And if I don't like it in the end, who cares? It's not a big deal. It's the practice of practicing, of practicing letting go of control. So now I just find it incredibly relaxing, enjoyable, and it also sparks creativity in me in other areas of my life because now I can look at that practice and I can go into something else in my life and go, well, I can let go of control. Let's just see what happens. So my control freak tendencies slowly fade away as I practice in ways that don't technically matter like painting or crocheting. That's something I've recently started as well of this idea of practicing being bad at something new. So let's talk about the business side of things, right? In the business world, evolution is everything. Businesses that thrive are often the ones that are willing to embrace new ideas. They are willing to adapt to changing circumstances because that is just how life is, right? Everything is constantly changing. So think about some of the most successful companies, right? They're constantly evolving, they're constantly experimenting and pushing the boundaries. You know, a perfect example is companies like Apple, you know, they're always fucking around with innovation because they created a culture of curiosity and openness. They encourage their employees to think outside the box and to challenge the idea of quote, unquote, being realistic. Now nothing in this world would have been created if we stayed realistic. At one point, the idea of airplanes, electricity, the internet were not realistic. They had never been done before. They had never been seen before. It's only realistic if you've seen it before. If you've never seen it before, and a lot of us are out here trying to create something, right? We're trying to do something new. We're trying to stand out. If you think of anyone that you are attracted to, celebrities, businesses, whatever, they're standing out to you for a reason. They're doing something different. So keep this in mind when next time you find yourself saying that's not realistic because it can be, it can be realistic, but you have to start it. But it's not just about large companies, right, even small businesses being open to new ideas can lead to significant improvements. Whether it's a new marketing strategy, a different approach to customer service, an innovative product design, whatever that might be, whatever product you have in your brain, right? But staying open minded can make a huge difference. So let's talk about how we can grow this mindset of curiosity. There's a few tips that have worked amazingly for me, and I try to think about often when I find myself shutting down new ideas. So first it's practice active listening. When someone shares a new idea with you, really listen to it. Don't just wait for your turn to speak or respond or immediately think about why it won't work. Give it your full attention and consider the possibilities. And then it goes in to asking questions. If something intrigues you or if you don't fully understand it, ask follow up questions. Again, seek to understand rather than to just respond. Embracing failure is another one. Not every new idea is going to work out, and that's all right. Failure is a part of the learning process. We have to embrace it, we have to learn from it, and we have to learn how to move on from it when it happens. This can be difficult. This is where the shame spirals can happen. But at the end of the day, whatever happened in the past, whatever failure, quote unquote, I actually truly don't believe in failure, I think there's a lesson in everything, knowing that everything is actually working for you and that lesson was just as important as the things that are working with no hiccups, right? And surround yourself with different perspectives. Now this is one I think that is the most difficult and is the hardest for a lot of people to do. This can look like walking into different rooms. This can look like listening to podcasts or reading books that challenge your current beliefs that could potentially give you a new perspective. Engaging with people who have different backgrounds, experiences, and viewpoints. It can broaden your horizon, your ideas, and it can expose you to a new way of thinking. This one can be the hardest, but I personally think it can be the most eye-opening. This is why travel is so amazing, right? Going to different countries and seeing different perspectives and different cultures. It can be so eye-opening, but when you're stuck in your own world, in your own bubble, and you're surrounded by people who are thinking, saying, and doing the same things you are doing, it's very hard to get yourself out of that perspective or that belief system. And last, like I've said numerous times in this episode, just stay curious. Make a habit of exploring new topics. Like I said, reading something different, listening to something different, experimenting with new activities like painting or crocheting or whatever that might look like. The more you practice the curiosity, the more natural it will become. It's so fascinating to me because in the past, when I was just so stuck in my ways, this is just who I am, I had such a hard time doing something new, right, or having a different conversation. If somebody brought up something, I would just shut it down immediately because I felt uncomfortable. Where now, I can ask questions. I'm able to listen to someone else's perspective and see a different viewpoint, right? Because we're all walking around this earth with a filter, with a filter of all of the things that we grew up hearing, all of the things that we believe, all of these perspectives, viewpoints, a filter of our own fears, we're all walking around with that. So when we start to realize that other people have their own filter and start to understand what that filter may be, it helps us gain new perspective on not just other humans, but other situations, right? So being open to new ideas has the power to completely transform your life. I mean, even talking about, you know, my story of getting out of debt, for the longest time, I just said, well, we're always going to have debt. I just thought that that was like, that's what I always saw. It's just what I thought was going to, you know, we're destined to have debt forever. You know, we're never going to be able to live in this neighborhood because, you know, we didn't do the right things with money. And it wasn't until I actually got curious about what doing the right things with money actually looked like that I realized it was a possibility. But my belief of thinking that this is the life I'm destined for was keeping me stuck for years and years and years. The moment I got curious, shit started to change. So it can completely transform your life. It can lead to personal growth, professional success and a deeper understanding of the world around us. So the next time that you're faced with something new, remember, you don't have to accept it right away, but give yourself the chance to be curious, to explore, and to see where it might take you. Thank you for joining me today. I really hope that this episode inspired you to stay open-minded and curious. If you have any thoughts or experiences you'd like to share, please reach out to me on social media at under score, Missy Jane Underscore, or starting messy podcasts on Instagram. And feel free to share this episode with somebody that needs to hear it. Until next time, keep embracing growth and stay curious, my friends. Once again, thank you so much for listening to the starting messy podcast. I hope that this inspires you to get out of your own way and start messy. If you like what you heard, please share it, leave a review, and tag us on social media. I'll talk with you on the next one. (upbeat music) [BLANK_AUDIO]
