The type of person you want to become — what the purpose of your life is — is too important to leave to chance. It needs to be deliberately conceived, chosen, and managed. The opportunities and challenges in your life that allow you to become that person will, by their very nature, be emergent.
— Clayton M. Christensen
So often in life we fail to see the opportunities that exist all around us. Opportunities surround us. They come in many forms. Challenges. Difficulties. Fears. Troubles. Shortcomings. Weaknesses.
All of these things can feel very overwhelming. Most of the time it is hard to see the opportunities that exist in the troubles that surround us. In order to see our circumstances as opportunities, we need perspective.
Perspective is how we choose to see things. When we change how we look at things, the things we look at change. The proper perspective can change the many difficulties in our lives from road blocks into opportunities. When we are in the depths or our challenges it can be hard to see the bigger picture. So how do we gain this perspective?
One thing that can help us gain the perspective we need is to decide on the larger purpose of our life. When we have a vision of our life’s purpose it can provide the vantage point that gives us the perspective we so desire. When we view our circumstances through the eyes of our desired best future, they can feel less overwhelming. They can feel less like an insurmountable obstacle. They can feel more like just another page from our story.
This perspective is available to each of us, but it is something we must choose. We must choose our future and then we must work to make it a reality. But making that choice can change everything.
How have obstacles in your past turned out to be opportunities in disguise? How did those experiences make your future better? How can you use those experiences to gain more perspective on the challenges you have now?