There’s an old Garfield (the cat) cartoon where Jon (his owner) is putting sauce on a pizza one tablespoonful at a time. Garfield asks why he doesn’t just dump a bunch of sauce on the dough then spread it around with the spoon. John goes into a lengthy explanation of the precision & care with which he places each spoonful. As soon as Garfield leaves the kitchen Jon dumps a bunch of sauce on the pizza.
In theory we are all open to new ideas & are humble enough to take advice from anyone. In practice, however, we often go to great lengths to protect our pride rather than yield to good advice. Why isn’t our natural instinct to be thankful rather than defensive when someone is kind enough to suggest something that will make our life easier & our work more productive? It may not come naturally, but we can train ourselves to graciously accept constructive suggestions.