Free Your Mind and Gain Perspective

Seek a new Viewpoint

Unless you've been hiding away in a cave for the last decade, your perspective on life is skewed. It's skewed by your past, the expectations of others, and your emotions.

We unintentionally trap ourselves with thinking about comparisons, both with ourselves and others, and also trap ourselves with our perception of the world and our surroundings.

Much of this is habitual and is a challenge to change, but it can be altered.

Give yourself a break from your self-imposed limitations:

1. Free yourself from the past. Hopefully, you've learned a lot of valuable lessons from your past. Unfortunately, you've probably also learned a lot of incorrect information as well. You've learned to avoid and fear things that are actually good for you. You've learned to like things you should avoid.

* The past exists to serve you, not to guide you. Focus on today.

2. Cut down on your media intake. The media isn’t really about reality, it's about ratings. The media might be presenting factual information, but it’s what they select to tell you. It's the interesting and sensational things that keep viewers tuning in night after night. The media presents a narrow slice of the world.

* Take a break from the news and investigate the real world for yourself.

3. Make decisions without worrying what others think. Admit it. When you make certain decisions, you consider how your decision will be seen by others. This might be important in a work setting, but you should feel free to be yourself the rest of the time.

* If you don't think your friends will approve of a decision, you might need to find new friends. People admire and respect those that are willing to be authentic and be themselves.

4. Forget about the possibility of being perfect. Perfection is an unrealistic expectation. Life is about dealing with the imperfect. Your partner, boss, children, physique, health, finances, and the weather are consistently imperfect. Your job is to figure out how to manage the imperfections.

* Perfection is the enemy of progress, be yourself and live life.

5. Talk to an older relative that you respect. Sure, your grandfather wears socks with his sandals when he goes to the beach and pulls his bathing suit up to his armpits, but he knows things that you don't. People in their middle age tend to be a little too serious.

* Those over the age of 70 have a unique perspective on life. Spend some time with an older relative and ask questions. Ask them how their perspective has changed over the years. It's likely that you'll experience similar changes, too.

6. Watch younger children. Kids under the age of five are young enough to not care what others think, but are old enough to have preferences. Children of this age will do whatever they want if left to their own devices. They are psychologically free. What would you do if you had the perspective of a 4-year old?

*Learn to look at life from other angles, question the ‘norm’

Regularly take a mental break from the world and assess your perspective.

The challenge with changing your perspective on life is that you're constantly "in" your life.

Try to start seeing your life from another angle, write down your problems and see if you can come up with some solutions by thinking from another persons point of view, "If I was more confident, what would I do?", "What is my ideal answer to this problem?"

Disengage from time to time and seek a new viewpoint. Move beyond your past. Free your mind and gain perspective.

Once you have your 'ideal answer' to the current problem, break it down to manageable goals and work at those.