What is your perspective? What if every event in life is neutral and how you respond v.s. react to that event directly determines your experience? Your perspective is hugely involved in how you feel about events in your life. Not sure this is true? Try this on for a moment: two different people can be presented with a life challenge (death of a loved one, sudden or prolonged unemployment, infertility, etc.) but how they handle it may be completely opposite. Have you ever seen this play out in real life? I imagine you have.
What is it, then, that gives us our perspective and how does this impact how we respond or react to the curve balls life tends to throw in our direction? Many factors, actually, including personal background and upbringing, life experiences, ideas we’ve formed about how we believe life works, how we’re feeling in the moment, current quality of life as well as what your perspective is, can contribute to how you view situations. It is entirely possible, though, to shift our perspective in the moment, if needed, to ensure we respond in the healthiest manner possible, both for ourselves and others.
What Is Your Perspective? : Change Your Perspective, Change Your Life!
When you find yourself faced with a new (often unexpected) or challenging event, circumstance or situation, ask yourself the following questions:
1) Does this truly need to be dealt with right now?
2) If I don’t react immediately, will it jeopardize my safety or that of someone else?
3) Will this situation be important in a year from now?
4) Do I have the resources myself to handle this situation?
5) Is this circumstance urgent enough to interrupt the plan I have laid out for my day already?
6) How would I prefer to handle this situation if I had more time to process it? Do I have the liberty to take a few extra minutes to engage in that process now or in the near future?
Most of us are used to reacting to life as it happens and standing firm in the perspective of “this MUST be handled NOW!” This approach to everyday living can really monkey with our time, energy and resources. If we feel like we’re constantly attending to unexpected “fires” that seem to occur around every corner, then we are creating a sense of urgency in our own lives, by coming from the perspective of “it’s a problem”. Handling life this way gets in our way of following through on the actions we set for our own goals. It often unnecessarily interrupts the flow of our day, and it can cause us to build up and harbor anger, resentment and irritation. These feelings (that we are creating) can interfere significantly with our relationships, friendships, work, personal time, and how we care for ourselves and those we love. Of course, true emergencies occur. When they happen, take immediate and appropriate action. But, when we stop to take just a few extra moments to look a little more closely at each “fire” before we abruptly jump to extinguish it, we often discover that far more things can wait until we’ve first attended to what we already had planned in our day.
If you would like to learn more concrete tools on how to change your perspective and feelings, give me a call today to see if the coaching counseling services that I offer are a fit for you! 619-687-9013