It's All About P3rSp3ctiv3.

Daniel J. Cuesta | Insight 50

It’s all about perspective. The way you look at things. The lens you use and the filter you add on before hitting “post” on the inner network that is your mind.

The nice thing about perspective is that it's malleable… Well, mostly.

It's only as changeable as you allow it to be. That's a choice you have and can control. No one is saying to live with rose-tinted glasses, but a good perspective shift never hurt anyone, even if only for the sake of a thought experiment. 

So, not only can perspective be molded, but you don’t have to wait for anyone to do it for you.

With that in mind, here are 3 Radical shifts in thought that have personally given me hope and served me better that might do the same for you:

1. Don’t Prove The Haters Wrong. (Prove the lovers' right.)

2. It's Not Checkmate, Just Check, Mate. (The “end” is probably not your end)

3. Front Row Seats Aren’t The Best In The House (You miss the full vision)

While I am not arguing for blind faith, I do firmly believe that choosing the better “perspective” will do you more good in the long run while saving you trouble and stress in the short one.

1. Don’t Prove The Hater Wrong. (Prove The Lovers Right.) (Instagram Reel Here;)

The world isn't against you, so stop thinking it is. I'm sorry to be the one to have to break it to you, but most people simply don’t care, don’t bother, or don’t have time to even consider your actions. This is known as the spotlight effect, a cognitive bias that causes us to overestimate the degree to which others are paying attention to us. And yet, so many of us want to “prove 'em wrong”. Who’s “'em” anyways?

Now, if hate were a sustainable form of fuel, my take on the matter may be a little different, but while hate might get you going, it will only bog you down in the end. We weren't built for hate.

This said, I do understand not everyone may have or feel like they have a community, or even a friend, who believes in them and is only looking out for the best. If that's the case, then at least do it for yourself. Don’t become your own worst enemy just to prove that negative side of yourself wrong. The hate won't get you far, and it does; you’ll show up in shambles. Instead, listen to the still small voice in your head telling you “can” make, that you “do” have it in you, that sure it will take hard work, but that you are capable of doing so.

2. It's Not Checkmate, Just Check, Mate.

Life isn’t a game of chess. It’s “like” one, but it isn't one.

It has its pieces that move in different ways and its moments that call for different strategies, but typically, the game of life often does not end with a single slide of a piece and checkmate. If you don’t believe me, just check, mate.

I promise that what might seem like the end is not. It's only a temporary block in the road, one that might last some time, but even so, it will not be the end of you. Yes, you may feel like a pawn, the walls of your kingdom may be under siege, but even so, you are still breathing.

Dory said it best, Just Keep Swimming.

3. Front Row Seats Aren’t The Best In The House (You Miss The Full Vision)

We are all so quick to want the “best seats in the house”. Our culture has trained us to believe those lie at the front, among the celebrities and esteemed members of the Capitol. But if you have ever sat in the front row of a movie theater or play, you know firsthand that you can barely see the whole screen, you miss half the action happening in the corners, and you leave the show with a terrible crick in your neck from craning it up for the past two hours.

While we are well aware of this, many of us are STILL trying to rush to be as close to the stage of life as possible. Some of us might enjoy being so close to the action, and there is certainly no harm there, but if we live our lives in the first row, then we will always lose sight of the bigger picture.  We will miss how the pieces come together to form a cohesive art, and then end the day with terrible neck pain.

The front row might be nice for a short time, but living life there is constricting and unfulfilling. 

—

It’s all about perspective, something that is malleable. Something that you can choose how to shape and form. 

So stop living to prove the hater wrong, instead use a better fuel to achieve your goals, and aim to prove the lovers right. If you can’t think of many lovers in your life, then at least don't become your own worst enemy, and then go ahead and love yourself. Prove yourself right. 

Realize that life is only “like” chess and not chess itself. If you find yourself in a “checkmate” situation, check again and find hope even in small things like the fact that you have life.

Lastly, enjoy the front row when you have it, but don’t try to live life so close that you miss the beauty on the edges. 

Remember that the glass is always half full… if you choose to see it that way.

- Making The Most Of Being Curious

Daniel J. Cuesta

Sources:

Don’t Prove The Haters Wrong. (Prove the Lovers Right.): Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. - Romans 12:21

It's Not Checkmate, Just Check, Mate: We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair... struck down, but not destroyed. - 2 Corinthians 4:8–9

Front Row Seats Aren’t The Best In The House (You Miss The Full Vision): Where there is no vision, the people perish… - Proverbs 29:18 (KJV)

The Spotlight Effect: Link