What Angle Are You Looking at Things From

Written on August 17, 2010 by Srinivas in Uncategorized

415528366 07b65fb2a7 What Angle Are You Looking at Things From

Last year when I graduated from business school and I started this blog, I remember telling my roommate that I felt like my life was turning into a downward spiral and everything felt like backwards progress. I had finished grad school, acquired more debt, and my career felt like it was on the brink of disaster. Fortunately, he was quick to remind me that a shift in perspective will shift what you see.

Focus on How Far You’ve Come, Not How Far You Have to Go

Let’s take a look at this in the context of a goal. Imagine that your goal is 100 yard football field. As you progress towards the end zone you could be at any point on the field, 5, 10, 15, 20, 80 yards. No matter where you are, you have a choice. You can look ahead of you and only focus on how far you have to go (which might make you give up), or you can look behind you and see how far you have come. If you focus on the progress you have made then you’ll always be motivated to keep going.

Focus on What You have Instead of What You Lack

Over and over you hear echoed throughout the personal development world that gratitude is the key to getting everything you want. However so many people are completely caught up in getting more and wanting more. Somehow what we have isn’t enough. Start thinking about what you have rather than what you lack. In fact if you want to wake up each day on the top of the world, all you have to do the moment you wake up is ask yourself one simple question: “What am I grateful for?”. Try it for 30 days and let me know what happens.

I’ve said before that the first 50% of any goal can be incredibly painful because it can often feel like there is no visible progress being made. If you are a blogger, you’re not seeing the traffic spikes. If you are an athlete you’re not seeing an increase in your performance. The list goes on and on. But think about where you started and then focus on where you are today. You’ll realize quickly that you are in fact making progress.

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Katie Brandt

Great reminder - I heard someone say last night that gratitude was a verb. I have never thought of it that way or ever felt I was 'verbing' gratitude. Your post reminded me that I should start writing a gratitude list every day.

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srinirao

Katie,

The gratitude list an incredibly powerful tool that really shifts your focus. One thing I heard is that you can even be grateful for the things you don't have and eventually they will be a part of your life.

Alex Blackwell

Agree Srinirao,

Too often we measure our progress from where we are to where we "think" we should be rather than measuring where we once were to the present.

Alex

Alex,
It's something I'm guilty of myself. When I write posts like this it's almost like I have to do it as a reminder to myself.

rob white

Very true, Srinirao. The conditioned-self with its collection of limiting beliefs will have us looking at life nervously. This is a precious waste of energy. We always have the option of turning our Woe to Wow. Why not choose a perspective that has us participating fully in life?
.-= rob white´s last blog ..Creating Money Matters – Not Reacting to Them =-.

Rob,

It's kind of amazing that we do this isn't it. It's not very productive and it doesn't even help us get to our goals. But that one simple shift can keep us moving towards our goals. We have so much more than we realize if we just chose to focus on it.