How to keep a balanced perspective on your life

99-SECOND READ

The moon is always the same distance from earth, yet it appears to change size dramatically based on how close it is to the horizon. Its appearance comes down to where you are and what time it is when you look at it.

Life is full of illusions like this.

The importance of a balanced perspective

Your perspective influences how you think and feel, the decisions you make, your attitude to life, what you focus on and ultimately how happy you are. Without a balanced perspective it's easy to lose sight of what really matters to us and forget the value of what we have.

5 reasons why we lose perspective:

1. We adjust our thoughts, behaviour and beliefs to suit our environment and circumstances so we can function effectively. This change occurs slowly as life evolves without us noticing. But even an overwhelming, exciting or scary change quickly becomes the norm. Remember how weird it seemed doing ‘normal’ things again after a few months of lockdown?
2. Powerful emotions, instincts, needs and desires alter our point of view – from security, fear and survival, to love, fulfilment and satisfaction. Depending on which one of these we are operating from, we see our situation more or less favourably.
3. We benchmark experiences through a process called perceptual contrast. E.g. We determine our wealth by comparing ourselves to our neighbours and friends. Imagine you move to a much more affluent or less wealthy neighbourhood, how would that effect how you think, feel and act? Although nothing for you would have actually changed.
4. Our brains receive millions of pieces of information a day. An unconscious filter automatically selects and prioritizes information according to what our friends, society, the media, and other information sources tell us is important. It’s easily influenced – due to the Frequency Illusion (after noticing something for the first time, you tend to notice it more often), you will start noticing the size of the moon, just because you read about it here. So the information we absorb literally changes what we pay attention to.
5. On top of all of this, we ultimately perceive ourselves based on how we think others see us, which, quite frankly, we can never really know.

“I am not who you think I am; I am not who I think I am;

I am who I think you think I am”

Charles Horton Cooley

Maintaining Perspective

Although it may not seem like it, we can choose our perspective. Here's some things you can do:

• Be vigilant – look out for ideas and beliefs that distort your view of the world, yourself and your life
• Make yourself consciously aware of the tricks and illusions that your mind and life plays on you
• Choose carefully who and what you pay attention to and benchmark yourself against
• Get clear on what really matters to you and continually remind yourself of that
• Audit the information you absorb and recognise the influence it has on you
• Consider how you mood and emotions are affecting your outlook

These actions will help you maintain a balanced perspective, helping you to feel happy and fulfilled by your life.

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