How’s your perspective?

“I cried because I had no shoes until I met a man who had no feet”. Saadi Shirazi

Perspective truly changes everything. It’s that blindfolded-men-describing-an-elephant-thing. There’s always a bigger picture and our particular view is usually limited.

Not only that, our perspective changes with time. You may be living with a story you wish were different. One that has affected you for years. A story that’s maybe ongoing, continuing to affect you.

But you can, and in fact, you will change it. Although nothing can change what happened to you—your perspective of that event will change. In every retelling, a story changes. 

One of the most life-changing things I’ve experienced is to work with the homeless, addicted and incarcerated. Nothing puts your problems in focus like that does. 

But here’s what really changes your outlook on your problems. Being around people whose lives have been so wracked with pain and suffering, yet their outlook is still healthy and upbeat.

People who have spent a lot of time at the bottom and are somehow better for it. Those who feel they can handle anything because of what they’ve been through. 

Now, these guys are different. 

Granted, many of them have played the blame-game, had the victim mindset or felt sorry for themselves at some point—but they didn’t stay there. 

With time, their story changed. Slowly, they reprocessed until they began to see issues in their previous interpretations, and found new meanings in their story. Meanings that enabled them to find purpose on this side of their pain or mistakes.

These are people who are not only better off for where they have been and mistakes they’ve made, but who have actually gained from their stories. 

These guys are different. The details of what occurred didn’t change. However, their conclusions, perspectives, and beliefs have. Therefore, so have their stories.

So I ask, “How’s your perspective?” Has your past placed a label on you which still defines who you are today? Or is it informing the you that you’re becoming? We get to choose.

We all change. There’s that word again. It’s the one thing that happens to all of us, no matter what, provided we keep going. We change. 

Here’s to change worth doing,

Tim

PS—If you’re drinking a bit too much, too often, then changing yourself can be really hard. It doesn’t have to be. It’s doable, it doesn’t have to be painful, and it’s change that will last. I’ll help you remove the dreaded labels, find meaning in new perspectives, and to the surprise of others, your story will change. Let’s get started.

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