When you hear yourself say “I’ve already done that or know that” this is a cue that you may be operating from the expert mode.  True openness and change requires the willingness to look at the world and your experiences, as if you have never seen or heard them before.  

People are slow learners when whatever it is that they must learn contradicts everything they have believed. There is a paralysis associated with unpleasant new information.  Information that does not fit the current world view is rejected outright. They rarely learn the new lesson based on intellectual comprehension alone, such as a careful study of facts, a comparison of facts with theory, and reassessment.  Instead, they are emotionally transformed by an event or experience that overwhelms their world view.  Rejection continues until there is that emotional acceptance. Then they re-think everything.