SHIFTING PERSPECTIVE
To start off this week’s RE/SET, I’m going to ask you a question and I want you to answer it to yourself honestly:
How well are you able to change the meaning, or perspective, that you give certain events in your life?
This is the very question I have been asking myself and analyzing in my own life recently.
Whether we realize it or not, we give a meaning to every situation we experience. Every single one. The things that bring us joy, the things that bring us pain, and the things that bring us anxiety are all underpinned with the meaning and perspective that we give them.
Our perspective doesn’t always serve us, but with a little practice, we do have the ability to change.
When we can change the meaning behind the circumstance, we can change our emotions, which in turn changes our viewpoint. I have learned through my own experiences that the more you focus on something, the bigger it gets. Shifting perspective gets you outside of yourself.
Here are seven questions that I learned from one my of my mentors that I ask myself whenever I need a shift of perspective:
What meaning am I giving this circumstance?
Who loves me and who do I love?
What am I focusing on?
Will this matter in five years?
What can I control about this?
What is the one action that I can take to reduce or eliminate this?
What point of view do I need to have?
I’ve kept these questions in a note on my phone for a few months now and I refer back to them whenever I need a reminder - I challenge you to do the same.
x LG Curry