I haven’t written a blog post in over a year.

It’s okay to think, among other things that this is because I’ve been uninspired, busy, callous, had no internet connection all the while or maybe I’d simply forgotten. Why is it okay to assume any or all of these? Because understandably, our (your and my) reaction to every situation is based on our perspective, which in turn leads us to believing what we choose. We train ourselves to be what we become intentionally or unintentionally by our perspective. By the way we choose to ‘see’ things.  Faced with a situation, we choose what to do about it and it defines the whole outcome. The outcome is not determined by the situation, but by the reaction to the situation. Our behaviour is a function of our decisions not conditions.

Now look at this. It has to do with my hobby. Ok. Not really my hobby, but the sport I like to watch most. Football. My club, Chelsea. 

I dislike(d) Real Madrid. For many reasons. But Mourinho being at the top as it was at the time, made my dislike for this club complete. I hated everything about him and them. I hated his jokes, his provocation, his arrogance, their arrogance, his love for attention, his this, their that…and the list goes on.

Then the man moves to Chelsea and baam, everything changes. Why? Because I love Chelsea. He now stands for the same things I do. Similar interests, similar goals. We both want the success of the same team. We both want Chelsea to win the league, (though he’s currently claiming otherwise). So, my perspective starts to change. I start finding his jokes funny. I start making some sense of what he says. I now find his statements provocative to the other person. No longer to me. At first I was on the other side. I was that other person. I have hereby (though unintentionally and believe me, unwillingly) changed the way I see him. Of course, our ‘relationship’ eventually has changed.

This is the core of every situation. Perspective. The way we (choose to) look at it. Between what happens to us and our response, is our freedom to choose how to respond. Which depends mainly on how we see and interpret the situation. If we see it from one angle, we choose to act in a certain way based on how we see it. If we choose, even if for the sake of experiment, to see the situation from another angle, then we just might realise that our approach becomes different too.

To ensure we look at things the right way, we need to live by a set of principles such that when taking a decision, we don’t do it based on emotion, but based on these set principles. We need to choose actively to follow these principles. To be conscious of every decision we make; either to go left or right; and to ensure each decision does not contradict the principles. That way, we correctly orient our perspective i.e. how we choose to see things.

Since outcome is determined by our perspective, we need to be proactive in our perspective. Not to let circumstances control us, but rather be driven by values; principles. Make our own weather. We ought to change situation by working on our approach. On our perspective. Choosing to see it differently opens us up to more angles from which to handle the situation.

We need to intentionally focus on and follow daily, principles. It’s easy to set them today, believe and then forget to live by them tomorrow. The challenge is not setting but daily going back to implementingvthem, even and especially when they go against what we are programmed to do. It might not be what we want to do, but because it’s backed by a set of principles, we believe in, we consciously choose to do it.

In this jungle of life, it’s act or be acted upon. Anytime we think the problem is out there, that thought is itself the problem. If we change the way we look at things, the things change.

PS:

Control the water and you control everything…

Sorry, that was Rango.

PPS:

Change your perspective and you change everything.

Yeah, right.