Photo by Mithul Varshan
You learn a lot by shifting your perspective.
My older brother once confronted me with a truth that felt like a punch to the chest. He said I sometimes treat people with disdain if they show signs of not knowing what I know. I was gutted. It’s not something you want to hear about yourself, not if you intend to learn. Knowing I have that tendency has heightened my awareness to check myself in case I’m allowing elements to creep back in.
I’m also not always reasonable. I can get things into my head that I can’t shake. No matter how hard I try, I can’t be objective. I get stuck in a way of thinking and convince myself that what I am thinking is 100% correct — it has to be, I’m thinking it. I’m suffering from a few cognitive biases I can think of.
This fortunately doesn’t last long.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve had the means at my disposal to solve any problem I could come up with. My parents always had lots of books in the house. From reading books of classics like, To Kill a Mockingbird and Tom Sawyer, to volumes of non-fiction books on everything from space travel and the cosmos to science, physics, biology, geography and many others. The topics and categories were vast and different, offering a wealth of facts and information.
My Dad travelled around the world through his work in the airways. This gave him a keen insight into different cultures and our place in the world. As a nursing sister in a large hospital, my Mom grew strong and empathetic. Being well-read, my Parents helped expand our view of the world and opened our minds to embrace different thinking. Their perspective of the world was not forced down on us children, instead, they guided us by exposing us to enough information.
If I look back over my life, even from a young age, I have never been without at least a few mentors. My Parents and older Brother were my greatest mentors. Motivating church ministers, schoolteachers with a heart, caring uncles and aunts, empowering bosses, dear friends and family, all offering loving advice and guidance. That’s a lot of people cheering me on. You would think with all that attention I have no chance of failure?
I recently went to see my church minister. It had taken me a few years, but I needed to address some issues that were troubling me. Every one of my pre-conceived ideas and thoughts I had seen as real and gospel, was presented back to me from a different perspective. There was not one issue I could call 100% true after viewing it differently. The process of changing my mind was slow, but when the penny went “clang!”, I knew I had things wrong.
Being prepared to acknowledge when you are wrong helps to open your mind to other possibilities you may not have considered. The moment is enlightening — when you can safely change your mind without feeling like it’s a failure. When you see things from a different perspective, from the other person’s point of view, you form a more realistic picture of the world around you.
Change your perspective, you’ll be surprised by what you learn. I know I was.
Have an awesome weekend and please be generous! 😄
As always, thanks for reading 🙏
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Originally published at https://medium.com on April 8, 2022.
