10 Choices to Help You Gain a Better Perspective
What are you looking at today? Are you looking at sunshine, pouring rain, or periods of cloud with sunny breaks?
Regardless of your weather (actual or as a metaphor for your circumstances), we have the ability with practice to choose the perspective from which we will see that weather from.
Yes, it’s easier said than done to change your perspective but I believe it’s worth our while to strengthen our ability to shift our perspective when it’s looking in a direction that is robbing us of joy and tranquility.
To change ourselves effectively, we first had to change our perceptions. ― Stephen R. Covey
Here are 10 quotes you can use as reminders and thought shifters as you choose well how you will see whatever weather you are facing today.
10 Choices to Help You Gain a Better Perspective
1. Choose gratitude
When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around. —Willie Nelson
Be thankful for what you have; you'll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don't have, you will never, ever have enough. ― Oprah Winfrey
2. Wipe out unhelpful judgments
If you are pained by any external thing, it is not this thing that disturbs you, but your own judgment about it. And it is in your power to wipe out this judgment now. — Marcus Aurelius
3. Focus on what you can control
We should always be asking ourselves: “Is this something that is, or is not, in my control?” — Epictetus
Take a lyre player: he’s relaxed when he performs alone, but put him in front of an audience, and it’s a different story, no matter how beautiful his voice or how well he plays the instrument. Why? Because he not only wants to perform well, he wants to be well received — and the latter lies outside his control. — Epictetus
4. Train your thinking
You have power over your mind — not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength. — Marcus Aurelius
We cannot choose our external circumstances, but we can always choose how we respond to them. — Epictetus
5. Live in the present not the past or future
True happiness is... to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future. — Seneca
6. Look for opportunity in adversity
The obstacle is the way. — Marcus Aurelius
7. Choose optimism mixed with realism
The optimist sees the donut, the pessimist sees the hole. ― Oscar Wilde
The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails. — William Arthur Ward
8. You have the ability to change your attitude
If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude. — Maya Angelou
9. Focus on helping someone else
The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well. ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
10. Find or rediscover your why
He who has a why to live for can bear almost any howl. — Friedrich Nietzsche
People do not wander around and then find themselves at the top of Mount Everest. — Zig Ziglar
Reflection questions
What’s your perspective right now?
Which option from this list of 10 resonates with you?
Grief Resource: Unlocking the Mystery of Grief
If you are grieving a loss or know someone who is who might need some support, pick up a copy of my newest book.
