Picture this:
You get home from work, you open the front door, and your Jack Russell Terrier darts outside, his little legs moving with the speed of light as he circumnavigates the lawn in a whirlwind of zoomies.
Adorable, right?

Now picture it from the perspective of the poor ant who’s just trying to get back to the nest after a long hard day spent futilely searching your kitchen for some crumb from that morning’s breakfast.
That adorable little fur baby suddenly morphs into a terrifying monster with the ability to squish you into the ground, without ever even noticing that you exist.

The fact is, Sparky Von Barksalot is simply existing in his reality, going about his doggy business. However, we apply conditional significance to his trek around the yard based on our vantage point, i.e. his trek becomes either ‘good’ or ‘bad’ based on the position from which we’re viewing it.

And this holds true for everything.

Life is made up of a series of events and occurrences which are in and of themselves neutral; it is the observer’s perception of those events which makes them either ‘good’ or ‘bad’.

And it’s our reactions to the events and occurrences in our lives that shape our 3D reality.

Imagine that you own a restaurant, and you just got a terrible review.
The customer complained that the food was tasteless, the staff were rude, and the prices were too high.
What do you do?

You can either spend the next month moping about it, fire all your staff and hire new employees, lower your prices, and reach out to that person begging for a second chance,
OR
You can remember the dozens of positive reviews you’ve gotten and all the loyal customers who have been regulars in your establishment since it opened, and you can recognize that not everything is going to suit everyone’s tastes and be okay with that.

Now, I’m not saying you shouldn’t feel a little hurt and disappointed upon seeing that negative review.
Of course you’re entitled to your feelings.
But it’s when we choose to wallow in that negative reaction that we keep breathing life into it,
and in doing so, we create the monster.

Our nervous systems react to what our brains focus on, which in turn not only affects our mood and our perspective, but how we respond to things.

When you keep focusing on that one negative review, it’s going to leave you on edge, causing you to hover over your staff to ensure they’re not being rude to another customer; which in turn is going to create a tense and uncomfortable work environment, which could lead to employees quitting and you being short-staffed; which then means that your chef now has to pull double-duty as his own sous chef, and that leads to him accidentally forgetting to season the steak. Your reaction to that negative review has just unwittingly caused you to manifest your exact fear: that your restaurant serves tasteless food.

So, your homework for the next two weeks is to try to view every negative that pops up through a positive lens. Instead of viewing the rush hour traffic as a nuisance, appreciate the moment as me-time and sing along to your favorite song like you’re giving the steering wheel a personal concert. Instead of grousing about having to make those gazillion sandwiches for your child’s class party, turn it into a game and pretend you’re a chef in a five-star restaurant making dinner for Queen Bey and her entourage.

And you don’t have to come back to this post to do it, but at the end of the two weeks, I want you to make a list of five positive things that happened as a result of your shifted perspective.
{And I’m willing to bet that you’ll get to ten and still have more to write. 😉}

And now. to close today’s post, I’m going to share my choices for the
Top 10 Quotes about The Power of Perception.

Until next time,