***Perspective and Judgment

Have you ever noticed that everything in life is a matter of perspective and eventually judgment? Imagine you arrive late to your office, complaining because your car broke down, only to find the person in the next cubicle had their car repossessed the previous day. It kind of makes your repair look minor because of perspective. You no longer judge your luck to be “bad”.

Recently I was talking with a girlfriend who shared that she’d been raised on a farm in Ohio. Her parents were poor so her mother made homemade bread each day. Not wanting to be different, she’d trade her whole wheat sandwich for one made with white bread, because she thought that white was better, because that’s what all the other kids had! Or my friend who grew up as a poor child in Price Edward Island, Canada, who was forced to eat lobster sandwiches each day because his parents couldn’t afford to buy processed lunch meat. He too thought he was deprived, because of his perspective and judgment of the situation. Not surprisingly, his perspective has changed dramatically since his childhood so much so that he now thinks lobster everyday would be a blessing.

Just a few days ago I was interviewing an Inspirational Luminary who asked me if I’ve ever been to Chicago in October. I remember telling him that I love Chicago in the fall and shared how beautiful it was on my last trip, with the crisp breezes, only to have him tell me that I was crazy! He was from Florida and thought Chicago in the autumn was simply unbearable, let alone in the winter! Being from Colorado, I thought it was invigorating and beautiful. Again, it’s nothing more than a different perspective and from that place, a different judgment.

Each day we wake up and don our perspective glasses- whether intentional or not. Each thing we look at or experience goes into our perspective filter and we judge it to be good, bad or remain indifferent. Imagine just for a moment that we could look at things and observe “what is” without any judgment. We read a blog and see it as just a blog- not a good one or a bad one- but just a blog. We get a flat tire and it’s just a flat tire, not the world out to get us. We appreciate life for what it is- without running it through our perspective filters or tainting it with judgment. How different would the world look to you right now if you looked at your life experiences in this way? What are you judging in this very moment rather than just experiencing it for what it is?

Without perspective and judgment there would be no right or wrong, no mistakes, no reason for regret. Life would just BE and could be seen simply for just what it is. I’d like to share one of my favorite stories with you. I invite you to read this and see how you can integrate this information into your life today. If nothing else, I’m guessing it will make you think, as it always does for me. Enjoy!