“When you wake up every day, you have two choices. You can either be positive or negative; an optimist or a pessimist. I choose to be an optimist. It’s all a matter of perspective.” Harvey Mackay
As an individual growing up in a very wonderful and passionate Italian family, I am no stranger to the dramatic. So, I know that with passion, sometimes things can be taken a bit out of perspective. The amazing thing about life, however, is when things do get out of control, when we know better, we do better. As we get older and are faced with different life experiences, we have the opportunity to no longer see things through the lens of a child’s microscope. As we live, our understanding of the world broadens over time and so does our perspective if we let it. We have the opportunity to realize that circumstances happen, it is how we decide to react to them that becomes important. In an instant, your life can change. There can be a dramatic shift that happens when life introduces us to circumstances that can shake even the most solid of foundations, whether good or bad. Yet, we are given choices. If we decide to see ourselves as a part of the great mystery, so much can be learned that will blow our mind. If we never allow the process to unfold because we decide to be rigid and inflexible, we surely will miss out on the beauty that is there for the taking. This being said, as we mature in life, even when something happens that triggers the passion inside, we can make it a good practice to take a step back and keep it all in perspective. Then with the trained eye of the optimist, try to find the good in the situation as it presents itself. And with perspective, what kept us stuck in a place of despair will allow us to break out of the small vision of the world into a new and greater one. When we do make the shift in perspective from a positive point of view, it is like finding a the key that opens the door to a better reality. When we do make the shift in perspective, it is like seeing the vastness of the ocean for the first time. When we make the shift in perspective, it is like turning around in our cage and seeing the door to freedom wide open. We all go through significant change in life. Perhaps we have lost a loved one, a job, suffered a health crisis or experienced discord in a relationship. After the shock passes, no matter if we initially process what happens with passion, a flare for the dramatic, or numbly, when we make a conscious intention to step back and see what lies before us with renewed optimistic eyes, we will know that as long as we keep it all in perspective and don’t give up, we will be impacted in a positive way as our experience will bear incredible miracles as our understanding of the world is that much greater.
