Perspective Matters
Scott Miker
Yesterday my daughter was watching a video on Cinderella. It was the classic story, but they added some twists to make it a bit more modern. But the theme was the same.
As I overhead the narrative, I found myself thinking, “I wonder if the stepsisters know they are jerks?”
Cinderella makes a great story, a classic. It goes beyond real life. Most stories must have a protagonist and antagonist. But in real life, it depends on your perspective.
Take any war and you will see two sides. They both think they are righteous, and the other side is evil. Hindsight gives us a right side and wrong side based on the winner, but at the time, it depends on your perspective.
If the story was told from the stepsisters, how would it change? It sounds ridiculous but most people that are jerks never realize they are jerks. They see themselves as right and others as wrong.
I was watching a sports talk show the other day. They mentioned someone who changed the way he went through his day but changing his facial response. Instead of carrying a scowl, he started to smile. He said the whole world changed and improved when he did this.
Our perspective is so powerful. If we can break our opinion down and realize the shortcomings we can grow and improve. We can see the worldly systems for what they are instead of what we were told they are.
The stepsisters wouldn’t change if they kept their perspective, but they would see a better approach if they were flexible enough to see it from Cinderella’s perspective.
Hopefully you aren’t an evil stepsister. But I bet there are ways that you can improve and get better. And most likely you are keeping your perspective and using those blinders.
Instead of trying to justify your position, learn to adjust. Learn how to flex your perspective to gain a bigger picture of the situation.
This unlocks potential that is locked away and shielded when we can only see one perspective. We don’t understand others and can’t adapt based on the situation if this isn’t possible for us. But if we can learn to see multiple perspectives within the system, we can learn to see the areas of opportunity and then work to improve.