Excerpt

Today, many of us think that we possess a broad perspective about things in our lives: we are no longer so sure that is the case – let us tell you why. Our beliefs operate behind the scenes much of the time, out of our view and awareness. In fact, so much so that we don’t even think about the belief (i.e., more on this further into this article). We want you to be diligent in identifying some new viewpoints. It will take your practicing to allow awareness to come into your perception: our experience tells us this is entirely possible for just about anyone.

Perspective Exploration Begins with Choices

Our number one choice is to gain a unique perspective by reading and listening to stories from all kinds of places: we practice reading daily rigorously for at least one to two hours.

For starters, there are many wonderful sources, such as history and current affairs, which are replete with views from all walks of life.

We suggest you think about kings and noblemen, jesters and magicians, priests and nuns, doctors and nurses, soldiers and generals, journeymen and experts, farmers and sheepherders, cowboys and Indians, editors and journalists, to name a few pairings. You can expand this list easily on your own – we strongly recommend you do. Check out the top 10 most read books globally (i.e., sales of contemporary and classics).

As a secondary choice, we also suggest investigating some other traditional avenues by researching varied fields of study (e.g., domains). You don’t have to travel too far to find connections. You could even delve into this topic from a deeper psychological aspect for those ardent detectives if you are really excited about learning more about the concept –  see some high-level thought-food and dig right in. At this point of your initial foraging, you needn’t go too deep. Pick four or five areas of interest for variety, and then start reading.

As a rule-of-thumb, remember to keep your exploration simple and look for stories people tell in their specific domain. Just a little research will help you a lot: so try some of these on for size (i.e., ping the internet topics below):

1. Critics associations – film, TV, theater…

2. Professional associations – accounting, law, health care, and wellness…

3. Sports associations – name your sport of interest(s).

4. Publishing – books, magazines, monthly periodicals, etc.

5. Government – federal and state policy of any topic – look for the monthly periodicals from all sides of the aisle, along with stories from the people in the front and back of any chamber.

Your own personal list of possibilities is endless based upon your willingness to explore. These are empty words to suggest you go exploring with no example – so here is a simplistic one for you.

A Somewhat Recent Story – The Lone Ranger Movie released in July 2013. The story is about a lot of things. Yet, we offer one different perspective for you and a little history of the story, especially if you are unfamiliar with the main character.

A nice western boyish young man goes east to college in the late 1800s, gains new ideas about justice within the context of the rule-of-law for the period, comes home to implement them in an unjust, lawless wild west, only to be perceived by the local evil-doers and common-sense oriented people as stupid and useless. His soon-to-be sidekick Tonto believes he is somehow spirit-delivered – which helps this farce throughout. To stay alive and actually help people, he very slowly and only toward the end becomes the current-day Robin Hood of-sorts, aided by serendipity, fun screenwriting, and impossible luck. Ok, tongue-in-cheek, this example is mainly action-oriented entertainment, but you can get perspective from any story.

In this example, our perspective is this: when you want to help someone fight evil, observe the behavior of your opponents first, then act according. Besides, Inspect your beliefs to determine what is necessary for you to remain healthy (i.e., staying alive in this plot is miraculous) and succeed.

Our main point is that you can receive perspective anywhere you are willing to look for it by finding some belief-matching-meaning to which you can relate. We will expand on this concept of belief-matching in future articles.

Here are some clues to assist you. Just ask yourself questions during the reading, watching, or listening of the story, and immediately after you completed it, ask:

1. How does this apply to me?

2. What is the moral of the story?

3. Do I have any of the characteristics of any of the players in the story?

4. How did these people overcome or succumb to good and evil?

5. What about the story affects me deeply?

6. What can I learn from their experiences to the benefit of others and myself?

7. What about my beliefs prevented me from perceiving what others got from it?

8. Do I need to stop, inspect these beliefs and change anything?

We invite you on this tour of fruitful and happy story analyzing with an intent to gain new viewpoints that you can apply in your own life…Give us your feedback below or on our Contact-Us page.