Yep, it’s when I make out my budget. I start figuring out how much I have, and how much I’ve got to spend and my first thought is “How in the world am I going to make it this month?” Happens every time…. but that’s not what I’m going to write about today. Today I am going to write about perspective.
“Incidentally,” he said with a smirk, “you ate sardines
and Vienna sausages in the sand. I dined on surf and turf with
an ocean view.” He slapped me on the back. “It’s all about
perspective.” – The Noticer by Andy Andrews
I read this book about a week ago, and it’s still affecting how I think about things, and how I look at my life. First of all I would recommend that everyone reading this go get “The Noticer” and read it. Don’t just skim through it, but read it, pay attention to it, and soak it in. I got into the Thomas Nelson Book Review Blogger program to get free books, and instead I got a wake up call. First from this book, and then from Andy Stanley’s “The Principle of the Path,” but I may talk about that some other day.
I think about how many times I just go with the first view of a situation that pops into my mind without sitting down and thinking that there may me other, better ways to view it. Let’s take my eating habits of late as an example. For many meals I have been eating a lot less than I was used to eating. One morning I ate just an apple. Well, the first thing that would pop into my mind in a situation like this would be “I’m so poor, I don’t even have enough food to have a good breakfast…” My mind immediately focuses on the negative of the situation, but if we would just step back for a moment and take another look, maybe we could come up with something a little better. Like “Wow! I got to eat an apple for breakfast! There are many people out there who would love to even have this much food for breakfast, or eat 3 meals a day for that matter.” Or maybe we could take this perspective, “Woohoo, I’m gonna drop the weight now!”
What I’m trying to say is there are always multiple perspectives in every situation. While we’re stuck in one of those times though, we may not take the time to stop and think about that though… but we need to. The next time you start feeling like something isn’t going the way you planned, or other things are going wrong, just step back and look at it from a different perspective. You’ll probably find one that not only makes you feel a lot better, but makes a lot more sense!