One way to open your eyes is to ask yourself, 'What if I had never seen this before? What if I knew I would never see it again?'
- Rachel Carson
Do you feel stuck or uninspired? In a mental rut? Have the colors faded in your world?
What if there were a way to jump out of that rut without making a single change in the external circumstances of you life. As you may have guessed already, there is.
Take a minute to really spend some time with the questions in the Rachel Carson quote above. Imagine using them to create a lens through which to look at your life. What difference could that make?
What if I knew I would never see it again?
On occasion I go to an ecstatic dance event here in Seattle. After one dance a couple years ago, a woman described her experience dancing with her boyfriend. She said, "I started imagining, 'What if this were our last dance? What if this were the last time I got to do this with him?"
That one little question made that night's dance especially powerful and moving for her, because it put her in a place of being truly aware and appreciative of what she had, rather than experiencing it on autopilot.
Part of the power of asking these questions is that it forces you to take yourself off autopilot and engage the world around you with fresh eyes.
What if I had never seen this before?
Have you ever been delighted with something new, then gotten so used to it that you scarcely even notice it any longer? Imagine that effect, but instead of that one thing, apply it to your entire life. That's how many people go through their days.
To start countering that, experiment with looking at things as though you had never seen them before. Spark your curiosity. The world is a pretty amazing place, if you stop and pay attention.
To help you look at something as though you have never seen it before, here are some questions to ask:
- What could this be used for?
- How does this work?
- How was this made?
- Who would use something like this? How?
- Where was this made?
- Who made it? What human hands touched this?
- How did this get here?
- Who came up with the idea for this?
Questions like these can start to make even the simplest and most mundane of items objects of curiosity and wonder.
A variation on the never-before-seen theme is looking at someone you know well - a loved one, for example - and imagining never having met them before. Try to look at them with fresh eyes and ask yourself what you notice. What do you appreciate? What do you enjoy? What are you currently taking for granted?
Try this: For the next week, practice looking at things with fresh eyes. Make a habit of asking questions like the ones I listed above. Challenge yourself to find wonder in the mundane.
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Time for a career change? Launch it with...
The Occupational Adventure Guide:
A Travel Guide to the Career of Your Dreams
--
by Curt Rosengren, Passion Catalyst
National Job Swap Day is one of those rare chances in my opinion to get a new fresh perspective on your career and your lifestyle. It is on Monday March 22 2010. I am getting the word out to as many people I believe may find it relevant and helpful as I can. If you haven't heard of it before that is because I invented it today! Ha! I dreamed it up on Twitter and I've been blogging and networking about it.
Just like the White Knight in Alice Through The Looking-Glass said "It's my own invention".
Check my blog if you're curious and want more details.
https://lisalahey.wordpress.com/
And hopefully when (if?) people participate they'll read your blogs and columns about how to make a good impression at a new place of work/interview (which is sorta is) and have a chance to start anew somewhere else, doing something else.
Take care!
Lisa Lahey
Posted by: Lisa Lahey | March 18, 2010 at 03:34 AM