Perspective
is our attitude or view related to a subject or thing.
It is how we perceive things in the context of the whole and how we
judge the importance of one thing in relation to others.
Everything that happens in your life is in accordance with how you
perceive it.
What is catastrophic to one person is a challenge and opportunity
for growth to another.
When a positive, healthy self-concept
exists, putting things in perspective becomes an exercise in critical
thinking and reasoning rather than an emotionally centered
event.
Even though we cannot help but react emotionally to some difficult
situations, if we cannot control or change them, we can decide how we
allow them affect us.
Attitude, which is an aspect of perspective, is a way of thinking
or looking at things. We have the ability to choose how we think or
our attitudes.
William James the famed psychologist said:
"The greatest discovery of my
generation is that a person can alter his life by altering his
attitude of mind".
How we experience or interpret events in our lives depends on our
attitude. As we all probably know by now, attitudes can be positive or
negative.
If we choose to view our experiences - good, bad or indifferent
from a positive
attitude we will probably see them as opportunities for
personal growth and development.
If, however, we let ourselves get caught up in negativity when
things don't go our way, we will miss out on the opportunities for
growth and set ourselves up for similar situations until we understand
how to deal with them.
Certainly not everything in life goes smoothly and without
incident. Sometimes the challenges we face can drive us to the brink
and make us question why is this happening and how could it have been
avoided?
During those times we would probably prefer to not have to deal
with the obstacles that are thrown in our path. It is in these moments
that we really have to think and choose how we are going to approach
the situation at hand.
When we operate from the perspective or attitude that we are
here to learn, develop and work to reach our potential,
we can't help but have a positive, progressive outlook.
Ultimately life is a subjective experience and it is up to each of
us to decide how we choose to view and experience it.