Perspective

Each and every one of us experience ups and downs in our lives on a daily basis. Sometimes it may seem that we have more than our own fair share of challenges. Dealing with these challenges can be very draining and have a negative spiraling effect if we don't adopt a different perspective.

Perspective

"Nothing in life has any real meaning except the meaning you give it." -- Tony Robbins


No matter what event occurs in your life, there are multiple ways to look at it. To one individual, a job loss is the end of the world. They have lost their livelihood, their ability to provide for their family, their purpose. To another individual, however, a job loss means new opportunities and possibilities. They have been given a chance to pursue a new direction or discover a new career. They hated the job and just didn't know how to take the step necessary to move on. Two people with very different responses to the same situation.

Have you ever had one of those days where you thought you must have woken up on the wrong side of the bed because nothing seemed to be going right that day? First, you trip over the pile of clothes left on the floor from the night before, then you get in the shower to find the shampoo bottle empty. You make it downstairs to find that the coffee pot didn't get turned on and you are already running late for work. The rest of the day doesn't seem to go much better. What if many of those things are things that you regularly experience and just tend not to focus on them. Put them all together and you begin to look for all the bad things that are going to happen to you that day.

There is a lot of talk about how we ATTRACT things in our lives. If we focus on good things, we get more good things and if we focus on the bad, well, we get more bad. It doesn't have anything to do with attraction. We aren't magnets in that sense with one side being the positive attracting energy and the other being the negative attracting energy. In fact, every situation is equal until we give it meaning.

The Candy Store

We are like little children in a candy store. We consume rather than attract and we tend to have a preferred candy that we go after. Our candy is either a positive perspective or a negative perspective. We thrive on that flavor and seek out more of it. Just like the children in the candy store, if we get hungry, we will go get more of our favorite candy.

Positive candy allows us to see the good things in every situation. The job loss has meaning. The traffic saves us from an accident. The extra unforeseen expense is an opportunity. We eat up these positive reflections and seek out more and more of them. This is often known as the optimist and the third times' a charm.

Negative candy expects us to always find the worst in situations. The tough breaks, the bad luck. This is where we wonder why everything happens to us and why is life so unfair. The pessimist at heart, this person reflects on life as three strikes and you're out.

We may occasionally reach into a different candy bin but we naturally gravitate towards our preferred flavor.

Tastes change

Every time I ask my 15 year old if he wants something to eat it seems he says he wants something he never liked before. When I tell him he didn't like that his response to me is always, "Tastes change mom."

That's good news for those that prefer the negative flavor.

For just 24 hours, challenge yourself to look at every situation for which you have a negative response. Be open to the possibilities that situation may allow for. Consider all the alternatives that it could mean. This exercise takes practice. The longer you do it, the easier it gets. Stop yourself whenever you begin to think negatively and challenge those thoughts. Is that really the meaning you want to give to that situation? What other meanings might it have. You don' t have to believe the meanings you WANT to give it, just begin to find those meanings. Eventually, your tastes will change too.

Nicole Bandes guides people through the road blocks of life and assists them to detour around the negative thoughts and beliefs that are holding them back. If you are looking for a Personal GPS Navigation system for your own life, contact Nicole through her website at http://www.NicoleBandes.com

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