For anything you are ready to go full-force on, first ask yourself: - How do I know this? - What is the basis on which I form my opinion? - What facts that I

For anything you are ready to go full-force on, first ask yourself: - How do I know this? - What is the basis on which I form my opinion? - What facts that I can demonstrate independently are available to be presented? - What are the counter-points to my position and what facts support them? - What would disprove my position? (If it's not disprovable, then very likely it's pure opinion without a substantial backing) - Are there any other feasible conclusions for the same item? Why do you consider them or why don't you consider them? Basically you need to challenge your own biases. Why do you think the things you think? How did you reach that conclusion and is there evidence that leads to alternate conclusions? Once you understand that there might be more answers or you have incomplete information, recognize it as such. You don't need to surrender your opinion entirely, but present it as opinion and explain how you got there. Acknowledge there are other possible interpretations, and explain why you find yours favorable. You should be able to do this for yourself, and when you're practiced at it, you can do the same with others. Suddenly, you're not highly opinionated, you're a lot more thoughtful and you approach items that require some interpretation/opinion with a lot more thoughtfulness and research. It seems like a lot at first, but it's a skill that needs practice. I used to be very opinionated also without even realizing it (more I was arrogant, IMO, as I was used to being right). Then in University I lived with an incredibly scientific minded guy who was direct and questioning to a fault. It rubbed me the wrong way at first, but then I realized _I was the one who was forcing an opinion_, all he was doing was asking questions. Very quickly, I became quite practiced at checking my biases and understanding and framed my statements and opinions a lot differently. I'm not afraid to have an opinion (I do so quite often), but it's far easier for me to bring someone up to speed on how I got there, and I'm much more receptive to alternative understandings I maybe didn't consider.