Category: Perspective

Perspective

Your place

There are guidelines, often invisible, that define a persons place in the world. The unwritten rules operate well enough to maintain a wide distance between each residence, while simultaneously supporting the misguided perception that the radius we operate in makes us neighbors.

Structures designed by people that know their place, create roads that never get walked, neighbors that never meet, and opportunities that don’t become realized. And minimal effort to explore a new place, keeps us safely in our place.

Exploring a place beyond the defined boundaries is the only way to travel to the truth. Your place is everywhere. There is only the mistaken idea that your place is somewhere else.

Perspective

Meant to become

Yesterday I heard someone make the comment “….Before they became the person they were meant to become.” It was in reference to someone who is historically admired and highly regarded. The statement was made to illustrate the differences in the person’s life before they became the person we recognize today.

What is the difference between who we are today and who we are meant to become? The people we admire the most would probably, more often than not, admit that their actions in the process of becoming their greatest selves were, more or less, basic and ordinary.

But, how do we recognize the distinction between the two? And more importantly, is there a distinction? Do we simply create a distinction to support a romanticized idea that the most admired persons must have possessed superhero abilities and extraordinary circumstances? Detaching ourselves from the responsibility that we may be just as great.

There is no on and off switch for the people we are meant to become. Considering this, all of our actions count, and most of what we do will feel ordinary, even if it is eventually admired and highly regarded by others. Ultimately, we are the person today that we are meant to become.

Perspective

Look around

The other day I went hiking with friends. The scenery was so breathtakingly beautiful that we often stopped just to look around and take everything in – Which in that moment, seemed like the most natural thing to do.

How often do we observe the scenery of our lives? Giving it the same attention we would the most beautiful sunrise. Recognizing the thoughts that have washed their way into our reality, or showing love to the things that we considered important enough to have in our presence.

Look around. Take it in. Pause to notice your greatest creation. You may find yourself consumed in gratitude for the things you have. You may find yourself consumed in gratitude for the things you want to change. The only way to know for sure, is to look around.

Perspective

Release or fall

A release is when we willingly let go. A fall is when we take a ride that feels out of our control. The difference between how we perceive the two is a matter of our connection to the process.

A fall can become a release if, through our awareness, we surrender to the process.

A release can become a fall if, in the process of letting go, we make alternate plans.

Falling in love for example, can feel like an intense spiral out of control. A release into love should feel life giving.

It’s not a matter of us deciding to release or fall, it’s knowing that when we release or fall, we can change our connection to the process.

Perspective

One hundred

One hundred is often recognized as the number of completion, significance or truth. And today, as I complete my one hundredth blog post, there are a few significant truths I’ve learned through this process that are worth sharing.

Every day – The best way to cultivate what you love is to spend time with it every day.

Inspiration – Inspiration from external sources is limited. Seeking inspiration from within connects to a river that knows no limits.

Essential – Revealing only what is essential removes the shadow and exposes the light. It feels vulnerable, but alive.

Sharing – Sharing periodically feels like a sacrifice, sharing often feels like a gift.

Thinking vs. feeling – Thinking about what to create will mechanically produce an outcome, feeling what to create produces the truth.

Spend time doing what you love. Seek inspiration from within. Remove the shadow to expose the light. Share, often. Produce from a place of truth.

Perspective

Maintenance

After the building phase is complete, the part that comes next is less glamorous, often overlooked and perceived to require minimal effort, it’s called maintenance.

The energy required to maintain the creation of tangible items, like a car, are more obvious and the maintenance is pretty straightforward. The energy required to maintain the creation of intangible items, like a personality, are invisible and can be complex to maintain if it’s an elaboration.

It may to tempting to look at the most elaborate plans or personalities and try to emulate them. But, if it is not a natural compliment to who we are, the excess energy needed to maintain it will eventually compromise its survival.

Honesty is a great companion to maintenance – It requires less energy and creates a space that supports growth. If you find yourself constantly drained or overextended, ask yourself if you’ve built something that is more elaborate than you can currently handle. And if the answer is yes, re-create at a level that can be properly maintained.

Perspective

Better than you

Who knows you the best? Who is the one person that can tell you anything about yourself, what you like, don’t like, your beliefs or your deepest fears and passions?

There is a person who knows you on this most intimate and deepest level, that person is you. We have all the information on who we are, which means that we don’t have to willingly take on everything others try to tell us about ourselves.

And equally – in the expression of Maya Angelou – why not believe others when they show you who they are? Because ultimately, who knows you, better than you?

Perspective

Together

Whether or not we can clearly make the connection, it all goes together. Our life experiences, how we spend our time, and our environment, all become part of what feeds everything else we do.

With each action, we produce all the instruction, knowledge and material that we will have access to at a later time. And while we may perceive one action to be separate from another, the reality is, we can only grab inspiration from the source that has been feed.

On the surface, we may find ourselves doing things that seem unrelated to each other. But, how can something from the same source be separate? Understanding this creates a greater freedom that invites us to explore without the concern that things must appear connected, because in reality, it all goes together.

Growth Perspective

The gap

 

There is an awkward phase in the growth process that can feel disorienting, complicated and confusing – Let’s refer to it as the gap. It’s the space between who we are today and the person we are striving to be.

Because change does not happen all at once, our actions and thoughts go through a period of adjusting to the new reality we are trying to live in. During this period, we may be aware of a habit we want to change, but our actions may reflect a different reality.

For example, we may want to make healthier choices everyday or spend more time on creative endeavors. But, when we are in the gap phase of growth, we may make unhealthy choices or waste time because our new habits are not yet fully aligned to the point where they can consistently overcome old habits.

The gap just means that there is a part of us that still needs to catch up to our new reality. Some people may give up during this phase, thinking that the change they want is impossible. The reality is, we must go through the perceived struggle that the gap phase produces to realize the change we want in our lives.

Perspective

Questions

It’s logical that we ask questions when we want to understand something more deeply. Questions are the paint brush for the curious mind; a powerful tool used to create a clear picture.

I have deep relationship with the question phase of discovery. So much so that I felt slightly betrayed to discover that my method of asking questions may be limiting me.

I’ve realized that I could spend a lifetime absorbing the answer to a simple question and still feel unfulfilled. That’s because questions are not completed through the accumulation of answers from someone else’s experience, but are ultimately meant to lead us into our own experience.

There is a point where a question can transcend from being a scavenger hunt of answers, to being an immersion into experience. When this time comes, we have to be willing to let go of the question and enter into experience.