There are many ways to achieve the same results. And at school, it doesn’t matter if you studied 2 or 10 hours to get the same “A” on your paper: all that matters is the end result. Everybody comes with different challenges in life and it always amazed me that it’s often not the ones with the “smallest” challenges who succeed more. Why is that so? What differentiates people if little ground can be put on the external circumstances? Is there a chance that it could be the interior circumstances that matter most? I choose to believe so.
There is an interesting story in the book You Squared. It’s about a fly that is unquestionably trying to get out through a closed window. The open door is just a few feet away, but we’ve all already witnessed a fly that stubbornly decided that the only escape hatch was to go through the glass of that closed window. So how can we apply this fly example to our lives? What that poor fly lacks is perspective. As humans, we can see the bigger picture and quickly conclude that the door is a better option to achieve the same result. That’s because we are much bigger creatures than flies and our broader self-help perspective gives us an opportunity to see all the solutions (the door and the window) in a single blink.
Now, we’ll try something. Imagine that you are back at school. We’ll make it fun so we’ll go to your favourite class. Remember the teacher? The other students? Where were you sitting in that classroom? Were you an active student who participated a lot in class or were you more on the quiet side just like me? Got the picture? Good. Now, did you recall the situation as if it was the fly looking through the fly’s eyes or was it more like a human outlook on the fly? What I mean by that is, when you really were in school, you saw things through your own eyes, and you couldn’t see what your eyes didn’t see. But when you recall memories, with whose eyes are you looking? Was the “camera” of your memory placed in your eyes or from somewhere else? Who is recording the whole thing then?
This question is very important because, just like with the fly story, it will give us the self-help perspective we need to have to solve our problems. The more we can detach ourselves from our own story, the least emotionally involved we are, the better is the perspective and the wiser are our decisions. What is the best way to reach that detached state? How can we get a larger self-help perspective and avoid wasting our efforts just like that poor fly against the window?
Meditation is a great tool. Click here to read my post about How to Meditate.
Otherwise, there is also a great exercise that I will write about soon! Stay tuned!
With Love
Martin
Shine Brighter Now 