Gaining Perspective

Life has a way of pushing and pulling us in so many directions that we sometimes lose sight of what really matters. Instead of confidently moving forward, we find ourselves wondering, “What’s the point?”

Maybe it’s when your boss suddenly reassigns the team, handing you piles of extra work that feel meaningless. Or perhaps it’s corporate rolling out yet another time-consuming idea that seems destined to flop.

But it’s not just work. It’s the car breaking down again. It’s crabby kids, rising prices, never-ending politics. It’s the thousand little things that wear us down.

In those moments, the best thing we can do is pull our heads up and shift our perspective. No, it might not be fun right now. It might be exhausting. Frustrating. Even painful. But that doesn’t mean it’s pointless.

Often, those hard moments aren’t valuable on their own—they’re just part of the larger picture. A necessary detail. Without them, life might still have its highs and lows, but it wouldn’t have the same depth or meaning.

Many of us think that if we could just erase our problems, life would be perfect. We dream of winning the lottery, imagining our lives instantly turning into paradise. But if you’ve ever looked at the lives of most lottery winners, you know the reality is often the opposite. The money brings confusion, false friends, and anxiety. The happiness they hoped for turns into stress they never expected.

So maybe it’s not about reaching some ideal end point after all. Because even if we get there, life will change again—some things for better, others for worse.

So what do we do with the difficult in-between?

We learn to take it all in stride. We stop clinging to what we thought would happen and live fully in what is happening. That doesn’t mean resigning ourselves to misery. It means choosing to find joy even in discomfort. It means appreciating the journey, not just waiting for the destination.

Sometimes we have to put our heads down and push through. But even in those times, we can look up for a moment and smile. We can laugh. We can notice something good.

Because if we spend all our time chasing the “end,” we might miss the moments that mattered. And when we get there, we may wish we could trade it all just to go back and live a little more fully.

Everyone goes through tough seasons. Sometimes they last days. Sometimes years. But the more we can find peace and even happiness in the ordinary, the more those seasons become challenges—not misery.

And that might just be the point.