Perspective is Everything

“Perspective is everything, the most power comes to those with the most perspectives!” ~ Ken Pierce ~

 

Understanding Perspective

I was in a ‘learn to draw’ class of 10 participants and we were asked to draw the stool sitting in the center of our circle. We had to draw it from the perspective we could see it. We each went at it with a naive enthusiasm. After about 10 minutes we were asked to select another chair in the circle and continue our work. Then 10 minutes later we were asked to select another chair. This went on for over an hour.

Finally Hilda, our instructor, said, “What have you learned by changing perspectives on that stool?” A discussion ensued. Hilda raised her arm high over her head to quiet the group and said poignantly, “The person with the most perspectives has the most information to work with and so has the most influence on what is created.”

Hilda was a genius and interestingly there is a posthumous retrospective of her work in one of our local galleries.

“What was most significant about the lunar voyage was not that men set foot on the moon but that they set eye on the earth.”
~ Norman Cousins ~

100 People
I read somewhere if we could shrink the earth’s population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same, there would be:

57 Asians
21 Europeans
14 Americans (that is in both North and South America)
8 Africans

52 would be females
48 males

70 would be nonwhites
30 whites

70 would be non-Christians
30 Christians

89 would be heterosexuals
11 homosexuals

80 would live in substandard housing
70 would be illiterate
50 would be malnourished
1 would be dying
1 being born
1 would be college educated
1 would have a computer

When you consider your world from such a compressed perspective it offers new information in how to see our world more truthfully and outside our usual view.

“A child on a farm sees a plane fly overhead and dreams of a faraway place. A traveler on the plane sees the farmhouse below and dreams of home.”
~ Robert Brault ~

 

Most Important 100 minutes

Now imagine for a moment doing the same thing to your life so far. Shrink you life to the most important 100 minutes and write down what you find. Here is my guess: you will notice those minutes when you were most appreciative of yourself or some other person or part of your life.

Here are some of mine that come to mind:

Appreciating the moment my Mom and Dad approached the hospital to bring me home.
Appreciating the moment my Dad first told me directly he loved me.
Appreciating the moment my Mom told me asthma was not a handicap.
Appreciating the moment my wife birthed each of our three daughters.
Appreciating the moment I finished my marathon.
Appreciating the moments I spend with my grandchildren.
Appreciating the moments I watched the sunrise from my deck.

 

“If you do not raise your eyes you will think that you are the highest point.”
~ Antonio Porchia ~

As you identify your own magic moments notice as well, they have often been moments of awe. You weren’t elated, ecstatic, overjoyed or happy. Rather they were moments where you stopped to feel gratitude for your life just as it was at that moment. Nothing needed to be changed; nothing needed to be fixed; nothing needed to be made better … everything was perfect … just as it was at that moment.

What if the perfection you can see in your magic moments of your life apply to every moment of your life? If you want to find people who have got this already figured out, who already think and feel this way, I can tell you where to find some of them.

“In the presence of eternity, the mountains are as transient as the clouds.”
~ Robert Green Ingersoll ~

The Most Grateful People

Visit a palliative care facility in your community and notice the gratitude for every minute of every day regardless of the weather, the medical prognosis or the pain. Here you will find people facing, what many consider, their greatest fear. Here you will find people who have learned to appreciate their life regardless of its content. Here you will find people who are grateful for each minute of their life … because they get to live it.

It has been said real wisdom is seeing the opportunity in a crisis. People who are facing their own death often take their opportunity to appreciate their life and those who were in it regardless of their role. They often get called “wise.”

Check out our “Take Away Tool” for how to identify a new perspective on your life … your 100 Magic Moments.

“What if this perfection you can see in your magic moments of your life apply to every moment of your life?!” ~ Ken Pierce ~

Namaste,
Ken

POINTS TO PONDER AND REMEMBER:

1.    The more perspectives you have the more information you have.
2.    The more information you have the more power you have to influence others.
3.    Every perspective offers unique information on any situation.
4.    The earth reduced to 100 people shows us a new angle on its composition.
5.    When you take new angles on your life you learn important things.
6.    Identifying your 100 most memorable moments offers you important insights.
7.    Your most memorable moments invariably are moments of perfect gratitude.

YOUR TAKE AWAY TOOL:

“Identify Your 100 Magic Moments!”

Step 1: Review your life so far and identify the ten specific moments which you would term magic, special or memorable to you in some very important way.
Step 2: Now identify 10 more moments from your past which meet the same criteria.
Step 3: Now keep going until you find 100 of them and notice the pattern of gratitude or appreciation you were experiencing in those memorable moments.