Blog

“Perspective is everything, it’s all we have. Changing it is the only real way to change our lives”. My wife Mandy said this a couple of weeks ago and it really resonated with me, because it’s 100% true. The popular author, Wayne Dyer, has be known to say “Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change”.

We often see obstacles and challenges as nightmare scenarios with the potential to run us off course and ruin all our efforts. Simple cravings get blown out of proportion. That wedding we have to go to next month becomes a giant weight on our shoulders. The jar of chocolates on the receptionist’s desk feels like a magnet that gets more and more powerful each time we walk past it. Each of these situation generates fear, anxiety and a feeling of impending doom. So we avoid them. We take the long way to work, we eat lunch at our desk and we stop going out.

There’s an old saying in sports – if you want to be the best, you have to beat the best. Great athletes and teams relish the opportunity to face the best. They know there’s a good chance they’ll be defeated but they look forward to it as a chance to test themselves and prove that they have what it takes to be successful. Great athletes see challenges as a chance to learn and grow. The best figure skaters in the world fall an average of 10000 times in practice before they eventually make it onto our TV screens at the Olympics. If a skater is overly fearful and worried about falling at practice then they won’t last long in that sport. If they see falling as on opportunity to learn where and how they need to improve, they’ll get much further.

Driving past your favourite fast food restaurant presents an opportunity to get better at saying “no” to cravings. Going out for dinner with friends gives you a chance to connect on a deeper level, without food distracting you from what’s really important. Date night allows you to explore new fun ideas and experiences other than the same old dinner and a movie.

When I learned to see challenges and opportunities to prove to myself that I am capable of making the right choice instead of the fun choice, my whole world opened up and success suddenly seemed possible.