“When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”
– Wayne Dyer
I’ve always liked this quote and find myself thinking about it often.
Can something external to us really change—if we change the way we look at it? Well, I don’t know for sure about that. But I do know that by changing our perspective on how we look at something, we are able to see that something differently.
And that, in and of itself, can be a game-changer.
I recently came across a book entitled, Inner and Outer Peace Through Meditation, by Rajinder Singh. In this book, I found this insightful little story:
“There is an instructive story from the life of Akbar the Great of India. Akbar was an emperor and he had a court of advisors. The wisest of his counselors was Birbal. One day, Akbar posed a problem to his counselors to see who could solve it. He drew a line in the sand with a stick and asked who could shorten the line without touching any part of it.
The counselors scratched their heads not knowing what to do. They could not imagine how a line could be shortened without rubbing it away or touching it. But Birbal stepped forward, picked up the stick, and drew a longer line parallel to the first, thus making the first one look shorter.
Meditation provides a similar solution to the problems of life: it does not eliminate them, but it gives us a new angle of vision, a new perspective.”
Although meditation is not one of my strengths (yet), I still really liked this story—because it speaks to the importance of being able to change our perspective. Meditation is one way to do this…but there are other ways as well.
We just have to figure out HOW to look at something familiar from a new angle.
Here is a personal example from my experience as a writer:
I write blogs, books, playscripts, screenplays and am now starting to learn how to write limited TV series. Now, if you had told me ten years ago that I would one day be starting to write projects as lengthy as limited series, I would have laughed…then run screaming in the other direction.
But here’s the thing: at first, writing a screenplay (approximately 120 pages) was completely overwhelming to me. It just seemed like SO much content! But writing the darn things over and over again taught me that they actually don’t require that much content. In fact, I was trying to squish in WAY too much content into a feature film screenplay. Eventually, I figured out that what I was trying to cram into a feature script often belonged in a limited series.
In other words, the short line in the sand was a feature film screenplay. The long line in the sand was a limited series script. When I was finally able to shift my perspective, the short line in the sand began to look very short indeed!
Perspective is everything. Drawing a longer line above a shorter one can really help us perceive whatever it is we are being challenged by from a different perspective.
How about you?
Is there something you are dealing with right now—that seems daunting or insurmountable or completely overwhelming? What if you pretended that was a short line in the sand…and then you drew an imaginary longer line in the sand above that?
Is there a way you can shift your perspective—so that you are able to better tackle whatever it is you are trying to tackle?
“Changing your perspective changes your experience.”
– Unknown
Previously Published on Pink Gazelle
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