Perspective: When It's All You Can Change, Change That
The past 21 months have opened our eyes to life being turned inside out, upside down, masked up, and socially distanced. In ways large or small, it has touched us all, personally and professionally. Just when it seemed that the pandemic wave was ebbing, a new virus variant (then another variant) rolled in with the tide. Quite literally, everybody and their brother is getting sick. The gravity of this can influence us to feel scared, pessimistic, depressed, and hopeless. But our feelings are a byproduct of our perspective. Our reality is completely based on our perspective. We have the power to change filters. In doing so, we change our perspective. By changing our perspective, we change our lives.
A fictional character who has stolen our hearts with his sunny-side-up perspective is Ted Lasso. The Apple TV comedy came at a time when we all needed a lesson on how to make lemonade out of lemons. Possibly, the only appealing thing about the super-successful show is Ted's character. There's not much to the story line and the other characters are neither relatable nor very likable. But Ted's cheery disposition captivates our hearts and keeps us tuning in, smiling, and paying a $5/month subscription. Although Ted Lasso is make believe, his character's portrayal of how to choose perspective is very real.
Many things in life affect our perspective- childhood, traumas, victories, fluke accidents, fluke wins, sickness, death, a panacea, a pandemic... but we can own that dial and fine tune it any way we please. Most people don't take the time to think about that. How we see and feel things has all to do with how we shift the compass. N-S-E-W, the choice is yours. I, for one, can be veered in all directions, but I choose to come back to North.
Today being Day 1 of the BB Well Challenge or, perhaps a resolution of your own, I encourage you to fixate on what your life has to gain and not what you're giving up. They say life is short, but you can rebut, thankfully and gloriously, that "life is long." And then choose to carpe diem (seize the day) every day. Be well; be happy; be fit and active; be kind; be forgiving; be forgiven; be generous; and be the master of your perspective.
