When considering the matter of perspectives in our ideas, beliefs, and relationships it's important to understand that it is merely a snapshot taken from one or more angles that capture pieces of a whole.
Is one perspective truly capable of giving us a complete and accurate picture? Let's find out....
To demonstrate how important it is to be open to as many perspectives as possible, we should probably start with something simple but we will have to enlist our imaginations a little bit to help us along the way.
Pretend that you have never seen a car before. You have no idea what it is at all, nor do you understand it's purpose or function. You've been sent on a mission from headquarters to describe exactly what you see to them. Others have been sent with you to provide their descriptions as well.
Now imagine that you are rooted to a certain spot a fair distance away from this car and it is impossible for you to move to a different position. Let's say that you are facing the front of the car. Another person is facing the side of the car. Another is facing the back end of the car. There is also another person flying above and has a visual of the top of the car. One more person is viewing the car from underneath.
You begin to report back to headquarters with your observations of the front end of the car. You describe the color, height, and width of the object. You note the window where you can see part of the interior. You see two shiny rectangles on each side that give the appearance of 'eyes. This goes on until you have described in detail everything that you've seen. The rest of your team does the same. Yet what they are reporting seems to be in conflict with your own description! One person has the audacity to say that the object is actually several feet longer then what you described. How can this be? They don't even mention the two shiny rectangles and are reporting something about two circular black and silver objects instead!
The guy reporting from underneath the car seems to be completely off base altogether and bears NO resemblance to anyone else's description.
With conviction you might say in defense, "I KNOW what I saw! I took accurate measurements. I"m an EXPERT in detail and can say that I described exactly what I saw and experienced with full confidence."
The others say basically the same thing with the same amount of conviction.
So who is right? Who is wrong? In this example, they were all 'right' and no one was 'wrong', yet not one person has the WHOLE picture and still does not understand what it is, let alone it's purpose or function. Having only the one perspective has limited their ability to adequately understand the object at all.
Now just for fun, let's take this one step further. Imagine you are an ant walking along the small gap that exists between the cars tire and the pavement. If the ant were to stop and face the tire, what would it see? A giant wall and sky of BLACK. If that ant were to report back to headquarters with this description, would the ant be wrong? No. But due to it's size and close proximity to the object, it does not have a large enough view and perspective to adequately describe what it is seeing. In fact, I'm pretty sure that it's safe to say that it would be next to impossible for anyone to deduce that the object in question is a tire attached to a car.
Hopefully you can see from this simple analogy how easy it is to be locked into a certain perspective or idea and confuse it as being all there is. This is easier to see when describing tangible objects but the same principles on perspective can be applied to intangible things as well such as our ideas, problems, beliefs, and even relationships.
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Our conscious and unconscious beliefs shape the decisions we make in life.
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Remember, at one time in our history, the majority of civilization believed the world to be FLAT. We may laugh at this today and find it preposterous but I would bet that if we lived during that time, we would have believed the same thing. We wouldn't have known any different because no one had sailed the ocean far enough to report back anything different. So people would view the horizon and formed a belief that anyone who sailed out that far would eventually just 'fall off'.
Yes, we may laugh at this now but it was a universal BELIEF back then and people made certain decisions based on a belief that wound up being FALSE.
This shows that we can be full of conviction in forming our beliefs yet be completely off base because we do not have enough information about something. So how do we deal with this if there is no way of knowing whether or not we have all the information? I believe this is where we allow ourselves to still form our convictions and beliefs yet remain 'open' to new perspectives instead of fearing them, realizing that we may not have enough information at this time. More information may be discovered that could provide a far more accurate picture that may completely change some of our beliefs we currently hold.
My goal in writing about this is to help diffuse some of the fear that we may encounter with the 'unknown' and allow ourselves to be open to changing perspectives. The benefits for doing so can be found in nearly every area of our lives. It can help us solve a problem at work or at home. It can help us in offering more acceptance to the ideas and opinions of others because we understand they are merely giving their perspective and it simply may be different then our own. Being willing to see things from someone else's perspective might just provide a more accurate picture then either of you had before. Both people walk away with a larger piece of the big picture and greater understanding.
It can be life changing!
FOOD FOR THOUGHT:
1. What came up for you as you read?
2. How can you use this information to help you solve a problem and find solutions at school or at work?
3. How can this information help you create more harmony in a challenging relationship?
Comments