Growing Your Line of Sight

Life is what you make of it. But it is also how you make of it, meaning: perspective. 

How we understand and embrace things is based on our perspective. 

"We’re short so Mountains seem tall. We’re mortal, so Earth seems eternal. Our spacecrafts are slow, so the Universe seems vast." Neil deGrasse Tyson summarizes it well. 

How can we take what we know and expand our lens to start seeing what we don't know? To achieve what we see as merely dreams?

Empathy 

Conflict arises primarily from a lack of understanding- whether it's from roles/responsibilities or knowing that you came from your father's funeral the weekend before. 

It is amazing how sustainable relationships are when you can empathize. In the workplace, it's crucial to show up transparent; being willing to be seen through so you can see through others. 

And everywhere else, it becomes the foundation of strong communication. If I know someone is frustrated, I won't start talking about something crass. 

Humility 

I write about humility a lot and I will continue to write about it. What is most important about humility is being able to accept that you are not all knowing. Fear usually holds us back from being truly humble. 

"I will look weak."

"I'll seem self-conscious." 

"I'll be too passive."  

But humility helps us create an open mind and identify things we could never even conceive before. When that happens, we can excel so rapidly. 

Acceptance 

This is one may be the hardest. When a major life event occurs, we go through many emotions before we can see and accept what's real. 

Take my recent marriage. It's been such an amazing blessing that it doesn't seem real. 

My personality has shifted slightly but only because I am no longer myself but my self with my husband. Decisions are based on the total impact. And the ranking in my values altered to where my career is in the top three but no longer number one.

I take a different approach to problem solving only because I can see through a longer range of time. It is as if I can draw a timeline that hasn't even occurred yet.

Accepting who I have become, has allowed me to strengthen my senses in so many ways. At work, I'm more alert and transparent and have more sensitivity to what others are feeling around me. 

With my new lifestyle at home, humility has been my guardian angel, knowing that I can only grow after each step I (or rather we) take. It is ok to take a deep breath, a step back and respect the other side. 

The new perspective can be scary. But if we had a starship that can travel through our entire solar system in a mere 20 minutes,  how big is our universe really? 

Open your eyes. You might not be as far away from something as you think. 

Photo credit: https://coraskywalker.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/helix-nebulae-in-aquarius-constellation2.jpg