Perspective is everything
My daughter woke up yesterday morning (actually, I woke my daughter up yesterday morning because she slept through her alarm) and she was not in the mood.
She told me she had been awake in the night and was very tired. She didn't want to wake up, get up, get dressed or go to school. She was Not. In. The. Mood.!
I tried all the usual tricks.
She is a HUGE Swiftie (Taylor Swift fan), so I asked Alexa to play her Taylor Swift playlist thinking it might energise her (Taylor's version, of course, or I would be expelled from my own home). It didn’t really help.
She hid under the covers and went back to sleep. I went in five minutes later, turned on the lights and reminded her more firmly that she needed to get up to get to school on time.
Reluctantly, she got out of bed, so I went downstairs and quickly checked the notifications on my phone. One of them was on Instagram so I opened the app and had a look. The first thing I saw was that Taylor Swift had announced a new album, so I went back upstairs and showed the post to my daughter. The shift was immediate and incredible. Her eyes lit up, she was excited, she was energised, she was happy. She was dressed and ready in five minutes and bounding down the stairs with an eagerness that I had not expected to see just 10 minutes earlier!
So, why am I writing about this and why does anybody care how my morning went yesterday?!
What’s interesting about this to me is that nothing about her immediate situation had changed.
She had still woken up in the night. She was still tired. She still had to get ready and go to school. The things she had to do yesterday morning were still the same things she had to do every morning, but that one tiny piece of information changed her whole perspective immediately.
It changed her energy. It gave her motivation. It changed how she was feeling about the day and how she approached it. It changed how she moved and how she acted. It changed her whole attitude.
Isn’t that interesting?
She let that one tiny piece of information completely alter how she now perceived the day, how her day began and how it continued. This was no longer an ordinary school day to her. This was now the day that Taylor Swift announced her latest album. She was looking at the day from an entirely new perspective.
I wonder how many of us decide to allow tiny pieces of information or tiny events to influence our perspectives so powerfully.
Of course, you might say, it all depends on what type of information it is. If it’s a 'good' or positive piece of information that’s fine. What about if it’s a 'bad' or negative piece of information? What if it's that our train was cancelled or that there are roadworks on our route to work, or that the car has a flat tire or we’ve run out of tea or coffee or milk? What if it’s something bigger like the things we often see and hear about on the news?
I suppose there are a few things we could say about perspective.
The first is that our perspective on things really is important, and really does impact our mood, our energy, our actions, our behaviour and our life experience. As Wayne Dyer famously said, 'when you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.' Perspective is everything. It's like the rose coloured glasses effect.
We don't see things as they are, we see things as we are.
The second is, if we know the importance of perspective to our experience and we know that outside influences can impact our perspective, how mindful are we of outside influences?
Are we careful and intentional about the things we read, watch and listen to? Are we considered about who we surround ourselves with?
Be mindful today of who you are allowing to influence your perspective. When you are offered someone else's opinion, whether that be on TV, social media, in a book or in real life, notice how it impacts you and how you feel and remember, if you don't like it, you can always change it.
That brings me to the third point; what if we simply decided for ourselves each day how we are going to look at things?
What if we decided to look at things from the perspective of a tween Swiftie who had just found out her favourite artist has released a new album?
Or from the perspective of a young child who has just woken up on Christmas Day?
Or from the perspective of someone who has just landed in their dream destination?
Or from the perspective of a DIY-er who has an exciting new project planned?
Or maybe even from the perspective of a spiritual being in a human body who gets another day to roam freely about the planet, delighting in what they see and who they get to talk to. Excited about how they get to dress their bodies and what they get to do. Energised by the sounds they can hear. Delighted by the food they get to eat. Happy to be able to use their hands to create and write and express themselves. Joyful to be able to hug others and laugh and have fun. That's not a bad perspective either...😉
Enjoy this beautiful day my friends, and do it on purpose.
As always, you get to decide.
Amy 💜🤟