11 Ideas That Will Change Your Perspective

You and I know that life can be hard. Do you ever feel like this isn’t what you signed up for?

In this post I’m going to share some life lessons that can help you start to get back to feeling better. But first, a story on perspective…

A Simple Life Lesson:

A few years ago I was on a walk with my girlfriend (now my wife) and I noticed a huge oak tree all alone in the middle of a farmer’s field.

It really caught my attention and I remember thinking it would make a cool picture.

So I got my phone out and took a pic. As we walked on and we (she) laughed at my random appreciation of a tree in a field.

I realised that the tree had been there all along, but I walked that route nearly every day.

Why hadn’t I noticed the way that tree looked before? Same tree, same field.

Because on this particular walk my perspective had changed. I was in a better place in my life and I was starting to appreciate the things around me.

That curiosity we have as kids but lose as we grow older, was starting to come back.

It was a great lesson for me that when we're in a headspace that's lighter and more positive, we see the world completely differently.

Also known as our outlook or perspective.

How Do We Shift Our Perspectives?

There’s two types of perspective shifts, longer term and immediate.

Longer term perspective shifts take time, they are a result of growing and evolving. An example - We often hear people saying that they 'care less about what others think the older they get'.

Immediate perspective shifts can give you a different outlook right away and can change your life in a short amount of time. Like when you discover a life-changing idea which you store in your memory and never forget.

Life lessons can give us these immediate shifts.

Here are 11 that might do that for you today:

1. The Trees Have Always Been There

Like the experience I had on the walk.

There are things all around us that can be appreciated. It’s up to you and I to make sure we’re noticing these things in our lives and we can do that by reminding ourselves to look for them every day.

Our problems and worries are difficult to ignore and I’m not suggesting you ignore them, but make it a routine to take a moment and acknowledge the things that you can feel good about.

2. Slowing Down

When we aren’t mentally present or if we disconnect from ourselves for too many days in a row, because we’re so busy and distracted, our lives can get away from us.

Which brings with it that horrible feeling of things being out of control. Or just feeling like a passenger as life happens around you and passes by so fast.

Slow down occasionally and remember to take in what’s going on around you. Remember to live and to feel.

3. The Value of Kindness

I was really, really humbled by the kindness of people this past week!

In particular a long time friend of our family who struggles to put food on the table, yet still selflessly bought a gift for our baby and sent it all the way from South Africa to the U.K.

Throughout life I've found that it’s not the size of a person’s wallet, their talents, achievements or social 'status' that makes them special or inspirational, it’s the size of their heart and what they stand for.

4. Growth - A Counter Intuitive Life Lesson

“Don’t wish it were easier, wish you were better”. I love this quote by Jim Rohn, just one of his many timeless life lessons.

An easier path or an easier life won’t necessarily make us fulfilled or happy. We can’t sit around and hope that things will suddenly get easier. That's like wishing for a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow.

Life is mostly out of our control, but we can control what WE do. That's working on and developing ourselves, so that we’re better equipped to deal with what life throws at us.

The more you grow, the more your perspective changes and the simpler things start to feel.

He talks about it in this short video.

5. Getting a Handle on Your Morning

There are periods in our lives when we wake up in the mornings feeling out of control with worry, anxiety, fear and tiredness.

If that’s how we feel at the start of our days, then that’s eventually how our whole life will end up feeling.

Getting a handle on your mornings doesn’t have to be complicated or time consuming.

Sometimes just pausing for 5 minutes and reflecting on a quote or an article like this one can re-centre you and put you in a more positive frame of mind.

Or going for a walk and calmly thinking about what you want to achieve and how you’re going to approach the day ahead, also works really well.

Create a routine that works for you.

6. Not Comparing Your Lows to Someone Else's Highlight Reel

Most of the things we see on social media are filtered. I’ve personally seen people erasing their freckles in photos!

Comparing ourselves to others is an unconscious habit that can quickly get out of hand.

It causes you to worry about whether you’re progressing fast enough in life, worrying about why you don’t have it figured out like others seem to have, worrying about whether you ‘measure up’ in relation to your peers etc.

It’s easy to sit and scroll through social media on one of your bad days and see everyone else's highs, aka highlight reels.

We all go through different stages in life. Periods of growth, periods of pain, periods of struggle, periods where we feel stuck, periods of disappointment, periods of triumph and periods of success.

We can't compare our Winter to somebody else’s Spring.

7. Leaving Work at Work

Taking work into our personal lives is never a good thing.

If our attention always wanders and we’re never fully present because we’re thinking about something else, we will never truly be able to enjoy what we’re doing or feel at ease. And we’ll carry a sense of guilt and frustration.

Shut that mental door at the end of the work day and step into rest and recovery mode. Or partner, family and parent mode.

I have a saying I like to live by: "If you do something, do it well".

That includes non-work activities.

As you’re transitioning out of work mode remind yourself that you are going to be 'doing' relaxing or family life WELL.

8. More Positive Self-talk

Our minds naturally lean toward being self-critical. Even the most confident people struggle with this at times.

Even if you’re making progress, you’ll feel like you aren’t and you’ll convince yourself that it’s true. We can be so focused on how far we still have to go, that we forget the progress we’ve been making.

Negative self-talk slowly kills our confidence and makes us believe we’re not good enough…

Replace bad self-talk with something more useful by saying less of:

“I didn’t reach my goal, I’m so useless, I can’t do anything right”

...and more of:

“I put a lot of effort into that and learnt some great lessons that will help me next time I try”.

9. Finding Joy in The Simple Things

We can be tempted to think that it’s found in fancy things, but it’s a temporary fix and you’ll forever be looking for fulfilment in more stuff.

When you can fully appreciate the little things, you are now creating your own happiness.

The richest people aren’t always the ones who have more, but the ones who need less.

10. Getting Out of Your Head and Into Your Body

Sometimes the solution to being stuck in your head is to just get moving. Walk, run, stretch, lift, play etc.

You’ll feel more relaxed, more creative and be able to think more clearly after doing it.

Taking a step back and doing what our body was designed to do puts us in a better place mentally, it’s like closing all of the open tabs on a slow working laptop. The laptop (our mind) suddenly starts to work more efficiently again.

11. You Can Have Big Goals if You Want

One of my favourite movie scenes of all time (based on a true story) comes from ‘The Pursuit Of Happyness’ where Chris Gardener (Will Smith) says to his son:

“Don’t ever let somebody tell you, you can’t do something. Not even me, alright? You got a dream, you gotta protect it. People can’t do something themselves, they wanna tell you that you can’t do it. If you want something go get it, period!”.

We can reach bigger goals by putting lots of smaller goals in place that will eventually get us there.

With enough time, patience and consistency it’s truly incredible what can be accomplished.

Final Thoughts

Life can be hard, but you are an adaptable survivor. You can become better, instead of wishing it were easier.

Take these life lessons and start implementing them. Protect and go after your dreams. Because the only thing that’s guaranteed, is that our time here is limited.

Which of these life lessons resonated with you the most? I’d love to hear your thoughts, your feedback is important to me 🙂

What to do next:

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