Perspective

When you were a little kid and the butterfly flew away, your ice cream fell off the cone or let’s be honest the wind blew the wrong way … what would you do? You would cry. You would cry because as a baby or a toddler or even a young kid if the slightest inconvenience comes up it feels like the end of the world.

As a teen when your first love breaks your heart, you get a bad grade or a rumour about you is spreading through school … again, end of the world.

Now, are these things actually the end of the world as we know it? No, absolutely not, but for that person that is how it feels at that time. Their emotions are valid but the reality of how they are seeing the situation is completely clouded.

As we grow, we learn and mature. We go through different situations in life that really help us grasp a greater perspective as to some of the things we face on a daily basis. The things that once felt catastrophic now can be seen as annoying but not life changing. Through the past few years we have all faced some sort of challenge in one way or another. Perhaps Covid related, family, work, medically … whatever! We have all faced something in some fashion. Unfortunately you can put all the planning into life that you want but every once in a while it jumps back out at you and kicks you down.

When you are in the midst of something hard like losing a job, going through a divorce or your kid flunking out of school it can be really challenging to get perspective on the situation. Let’s say for example I showed you the spine of a book. You can probably see the title, author and a small section of what the cover might look like. You can make some educated guesses but your understanding as to what the book is about is very minimal.

Now, say for example I gave you a 360 degree view of the book. You could see the front cover and read the description on the back. How much more do you know about it now? So much more. Sometimes when you are in the midst of a situation and you don’t know what to do it can be so challenging to have a clear understanding as to what the best next steps are. However, if you take a moment, try to see the situation from another perspective, collect all the information you need and then move forward, you are going to be in a much better position.

As kids we can’t grasp the concept that things will work out in the end, everything happens for a reason, or whatever you tell yourself to get through those times because you are just a child. However, now that you have gone through those early stages you can recall those times and know it all turned out okay.

So the next time something unforeseen takes you by surprise, take a step back and remember that in the moment it feels like life or death but in 20 years you won’t even remember it. Then use that to try and get a different perspective about the situation and how to approach it.

Life can be hard but having a continual reminder to look for a different perspective can make all the difference.