Going to seminars is very unlike going to work or going to school. When you go to your job, for instance, you plot in advance what you should be doing through your shift – projects to be passed, assessments to be made, papers to be finished. You schedule things. Or like going to school. You fill yourself with so much information so that come exam time, you might write the correct answer to the questions on the exam sheet. A seminar is the complete opposite of both scenarios. When you go to a seminar, you go with a blank slate of mind, a tabula rasa if you may. This is the only way that you will get the real essence of the seminar and understand the lessons being taught to you.

What happens if you don’t go to the seminar with a clear mind? Only the inevitable – you will learn nothing, or little, if at all, from the seminar! It is a wasted effort to go to the seminar with lots of things going on inside your head. Without the conscious effort of clearing your mind of certain things, the seminar will have a somewhat negligible effect on you and your life.

Exactly what should we clear our mind of before we attend any seminar? That is really the correct question. Essentially, we clear our mind of three things:

1) Clear your mind of any prior knowledge of the seminar’s topic. Doing this will lead to an unbiased view of the seminar itself. When you insist on what you think you already know about the seminar you are not letting yourself gain knowledge and wisdom; rather, you are simply creating arguments and debates inside your head, and as we all know, debates are nothing but worthless and counterproductive devices to satiate the ego. Give yourself a favor and act like you don’t know anything at all. You will find that you will know better things after having attended that seminar.

2) Clear your mind of anything related to work or family. Just as you don’t bring your work home or your family matters at work, you shouldn’t bring both to a seminar. When you go to a seminar, you must see it as an entirely different world – a world disconnected from your own. Therefore, your worries about your kid’s assignments or your boss’ needs should be left where they should be because they are not of the essence right now, in the world that you are in. When you bring your familial or secular baggage with you, you’re not only destroying the possibility of you learning anything useful in the seminar, you’re also giving yourself unnecessary headaches because you do not have the power to solve these worries for now.

3) Clear your mind of anything unnecessary. The latest fashion wear or the newest iPad update isn’t going to do anything to your endeavour of learning in the seminar. Unless, of course, if your seminar is about fashion or iPad. That should be part of your thinking system.

Clearing your mind of these three important aspects is not only beneficial, it is necessary to win the cause of the seminar you’re attending. Without a clear head you will surely be making biased decisions and will soon defect from the real reason of the seminar: to learn.