Our current perspective is creating our reality. Until we make an effort to take a different perspective, not much is going to change.
— Bill Fox
The view from above
“Wow – what a beautiful view!” was one of several responses I received when I posted this picture below on a social media site.
I took this picture with my iPhone while piloting a Cessna Skyhawk on my return trip from Pennsylvania back to Virginia.
At the time, I was flying over the Susquehanna River south of Harrisburg, PA.
Of course, the view was even more stunning from the plane.
But here’s the sad fact that I have become painfully aware of:
Most people on the ground have no idea what possibilities are revealed when their situation is viewed from a higher perspective.
Most of us are so immersed in the details of our lives that we never see the possibilities.
We focus only on what we see right in front of us, or on what happened last week, or on what we think or fear might happen in the future.
But what if we chose to take a more reflective perspective?
What if we were able to hold a higher vision?
What would we notice? And what different choices would we make?
But here’s the important point I want to want to make:
Our current perspective is creating our reality. Until we make an effort to take a different perspective, not much will change—no matter what else we do.
We often focus on what’s right in front of us that we never allow ourselves to consider a more reflective perspective—the kind of higher perspective that would enable us to create what we truly want and open ourselves up to new possibilities.
Rather than shifting our perspective—at least periodically—we instead focus on getting all the different parts of our current reality to work more effectively and efficiently.
And we wind up making the same choices that everybody else is choosing because they say it’s right. We are not choosing for ourselves.
Sadly, I see this all the time in my work with helping organizations improve. They adopt one methodology or way of doing business that everyone else is choosing—and, more often than not, they experience repeated failures or marginal results.
They don’t allow people to collaborate and to co-create something even better.
So how do we get a new perspective to create something different and better?
Flying on an airplane is a beautiful way to shift your vantage point. But you don’t have to be up at 3,000 feet to gain a new perspective.
The best way I know to gain a new perspective on the ground is by asking questions.
But this is important:
Don’t try to answer the questions immediately. The questions themselves will change your energy and allow you to become more aware of the possibilities that can show up unexpectedly.
What kind of questions?
In her book, Conversational Intelligence®️, the late Judith Glaser says that the highest form of questions are discovery questions. According to Judith:
“Discovery questions open our minds to explore new avenues of thought with each other. They help us enter each other’s worlds, navigate each other’s thoughts and feelings, and open and harvest new insights and wisdom not yet explored by either person.”
Try these questions that happen to be a few of my favorites:
- What would it take for you to feel more engaged?
- What else is possible?
- What does wisdom move me to do next?
- How could this turn out better than we ever imagined?
Now it’s your turn
What’s your best question for getting a new perspective?
Please share an example of a question that opened up a new possibility for you.
Please email bill@billfox.co if you’d like to share.
To your forward thinking life & success!
⏤ Bill
Bill Fox, Author, and Founder at Space Beyond Boundaries and Forward Thinking Workplaces.