Perception is everything; the way you perceive things, the way you see things, is ultimately the way things will play out in your life. Each of us has a different subjective lens through which we view the world – and that is what makes each of us so unique.
It’s important to acknowledge one of the best-kept secrets in life: your mind. One of the most powerful tools known to man, the brain eludes understanding. Scientists have attempted to explain the phenomenon but are still left in awe at its capacities and complexities.
There’s absolutely no credible explanation as to why we are wired the way we are, nor why we are so different. Your mind inspires your perception, creating thoughts, theories, ideas, myths and imaginings. It intuits events and shapes it within your consciousness.
At almost 30,000 feet in altitude, Mount Everest is the highest mountain on planet earth. It was first summited in 1953 by a man name Edmund Hillary. Since then, many people have attempted to climb it but have ended up dying while doing so. In fact, there are actually 200 bodies on the mountain. It is safe to say this is quite a hard task to accomplish. Looking at a photo of it you can see how gigantic it really is.
For the sake of changing your perspective -- look at it from space. In the newly achieved distance, the mountain appears tiny, almost like a dot on the photo -- and from that height you can barely even see it. Now think about standing on the moon -- you wouldn't even be able to see the damn thing at all. The size of the mountain hasn’t changed; it’s rather that your perception of it has changed, so you see it differently. And because you do so, it doesn't look as threatening as it once did.
Do the same thing with a penny, if you bring it right up to your eye, it seems huge and daunting, but if you just simply put it at an arm’s length, it’s nothing more than just a small coin with a tiny, barely visible Abe Lincoln. Now this isn't about seeing how big or how small things are -- this is about life. In life, we are constantly running into obstacles, hurdles and roadblocks throughout our journey that come in different shapes, sizes and forms -- just like mountains and pennies.
If you are going to live a life that is average (which they like to call the American dream) then you don't really have to worry about this. Your life will consist of slaving away for something you hate doing and receiving just enough to fit your needs and some of your wants.
That’s the easy way. It’s laid out for you and it is the low hanging fruit of life, many see this as the "right" path to take, because that is what their perception of security is constituted by -- because it’s easy. Then there is the other side of life and living it by your own rules…and that is where you need to harness your perception.
These obstacles that you will encounter will test you. They will make you find a way to deal with them and constantly keep moving on without stopping, just like climbing a mountain. Sometime we come across those obstacles that our perception tells us we might not be able to get past. They seem big and daunting, they may even feel like they are the size of Mt. Everest. They try to block our long-term vision and give us negative energy.
Things happen in life and often without your control. But no matter what the trial is, when we focus on the obstacle, it become enormous in our eyes. We can't seem to see past it and it blocks us and makes us doubt our endgame. Life is about looking at problems with a keener perception, recognizing the relativity of the problem and not feeling so threatened when it is right in our faces.
The best part about it is that in the grand scope of retrospect, compared to the whole year or your whole life, that problem that you once thought was a huge deal comes down to absolutely nothing and something you can just laugh off. It is true fact that 99% of stress and worry comes from poor perspective and the incorrect way people see things.
When our focus is limited to only one day or one obstacle at a time, everything seems enormous. But when we zoom out and look from the perspective of a lifetime, they mostly seem insignificant. And if you believe in a life after this one, you can see that with an eternal perspective, these problems are really no problem at all.
One of the worst things that you can possibly do is sit there and complain about your problems or roadblocks and let them stop you from the goal that you have had in mind. Life is about being solution-driven, not sitting there and dwelling on your mistakes or wishing that things had played out differently. Look at NFL quarterbacks, after they throw an interception, they can't let it sit on their mind, they zoom their perceptive out and focus on the next play.
Life is about climbing mountains, if it were easy, it would be common -- but since it’s not, people walk away when they see how tall that mountain really is. Your perspective and your perception will be the dictators of your life. If you allow yourself to believe something, then it will transpire in your life.
When your Mount Everest comes, decide to view it from space rather than from the base of the mountain. Climb it and get over the hump, change the way you view things and I assure you the outcome will eventually be what you want it to be.
Preston Waters | Elite.
