The Power of a New Perspective
I’ve said it before, but it bears saying again: If you are stuck or struggling, find a new perspective. Take a look at things from a different angle, in a different context, create a new perspective for yourself. It loosens up the mind, creating new thoughts and a different set of emotions. Taking a different perspective will surface new facts and create a fresh set of opinions. It surfaces hidden beliefs, so that they can be verified and adjusted, and disrupts old habits.
How do you get a new perspective? Read some history, read the news from a different country, read a biography of someone you’ve never heard of. Find out about the poor where you in your area, or somewhere elsewhere in the world. Visit a prisoner in prison, or do something that haven’t done before because you were afraid to. I’ve had a few friends take time out to travel the world recently, it is amazing to see how their new perspective has changed them. You can change your situation.
It is all too easy to get stuck into a rut, trapped into a narrow view of the world that drags you down. Understanding your position in the broader context of humanity, with a fresh perspective, makes a world of difference.
Just read a powerful story on the Avanoo team’s blog, which says all this well.
Excellent post – I agree completely. I think that’s one great reason travel can be valuable. Also, reading books that make a shift – for me “Getting Things Done” and “Value-based fees” (believe it or not) were big ones.
Thank you Matt! I think the solution might even be as simple as just ‘inputting new information’ into our poor brains; travel is a great way to do that, and it is much cheaper than it was in our parent’s generation.
Being stuck in a rut often means being trapped in a pattern of thinking. It is often a simple matter of creating enough change to break those patterns. Of course, the challenge with being stuck in a rut is that you end up feel that you can’t change anything! The reality is that is rarely the truth though.