Which glasses are you wearing to see life?

We spend our lives thinking that we see things as they are, but the truth is that we see things as we are. How can this be?

In this article, I invite you to reflect on how you view life, how you see things, and the people around you… Our life experiences shape our mental patterns, meaning that as we live and react to certain things, those reactions become habits, so we end up acquiring ways of acting according to our experiences. If our experiences had been different, we would act differently and view our environment differently.

For example: two twin sisters who received the same education, attended the same class, and had the same family. When they start having different experiences, their way of seeing things begins to diverge. One might have a strong drive for self-improvement because they chose to practice athletics in high school, while the other twin is inconsistent in what they do because they started activities they didn’t like and kept switching without finding something that truly motivated them.

Imagine if every time you encountered a situation, you could choose the glasses with which you want to look at life instead of always wearing the same ones. Does that sound good? Let’s do a little exercise with an example: “I have a company event.”

1. The first step is to detect what your initial thought was, your reaction to the news of the event. I might think: “great, I’m going to a party!” or “ugh, what a drag.” There could be many more, but this is just one example.

2. If I decide to go to the event and I find it to be a drag, I can choose which glasses to wear for attending the event: the glasses of the opportunity to have a good time or those of carrying the thought of the drag. If I’m going anyway… do I want to go thinking it’s a real hassle or, since I’m going, I’ll put on the “I’ll see what happens, maybe I’ll be surprised” glasses? It’s your choice.

   
   

The learning lies in the opportunity: don’t just keep the glasses on… choose them!

Image by Unsplash

Melinda Sánchez Coach

www.melindasanchezcoach.com