“If you change the way you look at things,
the things you look at change.”
Wayne Dyer.
READ that quote again, SLOWLY and OUT LOUD..
How we perceive events and people is a direct reflection of how we “see” the world. Ever notice if you have a bad morning, the rest of your day seems bad. It could be just one tiny event but how we handle it can, and often times does, shape our entire day. More significantly, it shapes how we interact with others.
Let’s look at how this quote can apply to us on a daily basis in our personal lives, our work lives and our faith lives. Too often how we deal with people reflects how we feel inside. That’s why we need to first “look” inside ourselves. The way we “look” at the world is the equivalent of either putting blinders on or taking them off.
This quote has been on my mind for awhile. Why? Why share this with you?
It is relevant to each of us right now and can have an impact on us and those around us RIGHT NOW.
How do we LOOK at things?— Eyes, Heart and Time frame
- Eyes – these show us what we can see in front of us
- Heart- This can also show us a view of something in front of us
- Time frame- can put a context on the things we are seeing either with our eyes or our heart
This next statement will come as no surprise to some and it may offend others. Such is life.
How we see things and people is a direct reflection of our state of being. Kinda like the glass half empty vs half full question but at a more fundamental, core level.
Let’s look at how this quote can apply to us on a daily basis in our personal lives, our work lives and our lives in general. Too often how we deal with people reflects how we feel inside. That’s why we need to first “look” inside ourselves. The way we “look” at the world is the equivalent of either putting blinders on or taking them off.
Before we go into that, lets LOOK at some more contemporary people and events to learn from the impact of their “seeing” things differently:
Once there was this slow child, didn’t really speak until he was 5, slower than all the children in his class, kicked out of school because the teachers and experts felt he was too slow to teach and was holding the other kids back. The teachers saw a slow child that was not capable of learning at pace with the others. They wrote him off.
His mother SAW a child that was bright and full of potential. She looked at him differently than the teachers, the experts. She helped him and taught him at home. He was Changed because she changed the way to look at him.
You may know his name. His name was Thomas Edison
Late 1800’s, a young girl lost her sight and hearing as a baby. As she grew she became a terror of the household, wild and unruly. The parents kept trying to help but conventional means were no effect. They brought in a 20 yr old teacher who was visually impaired herself. This young teacher didn’t see an out of control brat who was deaf and dumb (the terms of the day). She saw potential but had no idea how she was going to reach this girl.
That part didn’t matter. What mattered was she SAW the little girl differently than the previous teachers. She SAW her differently and as a result they were both changed.
The teacher was Anne Sullivan and the little girl was Helen Keller.
Helen went on to get a Bachelor degree, become a writer, and a Political and Social Activist. Her friends included some of the major figures in the 20 th century including: Eleanor Roosevelt, Will Rogers, Albert Einstein, Charlie Chaplin, John F. Kennedy, Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Dwight D. Eisenhower, to name but a few.
Thankfully for the world, Anne Sullivan looked at Helen differently and as a result Helen and the world was changed
Let’s look at some events where someone looked at things differently.
Everyone knows the earth is flat. Just look around you. It only makes sense the earth is flat and if you travel far enough you will fall off the edge. This was a true and known fact until some people changed how they looked at things. Men such as Copernicus, Galileo and Magellan
They challenged the dominant view of the world and as a result they changed the world.
Pretty lofty people and ideas. Almost too lofty for me to relate to.
Let’s look at something more down to earth. Let’s look at the 4 minute mile.
Up until 1954, everyone knew the 4 minute mile barrier could not be broken. No one had ever done it. It couldn’t be done.
In 1954, Roger Bannister broke the 4 minute barrier for the first first time. Since then thousands of people have broken this barrier.
He changed the way he looked at things and the thing he looked at changed.
What are some things WE can look at differently?
- People around us
- Ourselves
- Our efforts
- Events – what kind of emotional spin to we put on events
- Results of our efforts – success or “failure”
- Failure- What does this really mean? Look at Edison and the light bulb.
- Struggle- Struggle is temporary but lessons/attitudes leaned are for a lifetime
- Success- How we view it in comparison to others shapes how we treat others
How could I do that? How can I change the way I Look at things?
Start with your inner speak and commitment to that. Simple concepts but difficult to implement consistently.
This means we have to watch our inner speak because our inner speak effects our attitude and our attitude effects our view on the world. Change our attitude, change how we view things and things change
I read this once “If I were to talk to you the way you talk to yourself, would you be my friend?”
If not, then you need to change how you talk to yourself. Be nice to yourself. It’s hard to be happy when someone is putting you down all the time.
Commitment to ourselves to look objectively at ourselves, to acknowledge those flaws that hamper us as we look at people and things. Acknowledge with the goal of trying and improving. DO not acknowledge with the mindset that we screwed up again or that we are screwed up or that we are a failure
Your Challenge is to look at your world around you and determine what things you wish you could see differently. Then pick just one of those things and start.
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