OVERCOMING ADVERSITY SERIES (4)

THE POWER OF PERSPECTIVE

Adversity is inevitable; all of us are set to face setbacks and various challenges in life. No one is exempt. It is only the dead who do not experience any challenges. Challenges are for the living. Job, the ancient biblical sage observed, “Man born of a woman is of a few days and full of troubles” (Job 14:1). There is always going to be challenges and obstacles to overcome but we will come up tops, if we maintain a proper perspective of the situation.

How we choose to view our circumstances and our challenges in life determines both our direction and our outcome. In other words, your perspective today will determine both your destination and rewards, or otherwise tomorrow.

Everyone can have an optimistic outlook on life when all is going well. However, many people resort to a pessimistic outlook on life when in adversity. The way you choose to handle present difficulties will impact on your future outcomes. You can both wallow in misery and dwell on the negative aspects of your situation or you can find the benefit or lesson that the problem is offering.

If you are to experience any success you will need to position your mindset for it. See yourself solving the problem you are confronted with and succeeding. When you do this, even in the midst of adversity, you will find solutions and you will achieve success.

Choose Your Perspective

We have no control over a lot of things in life. We don't get to choose our parents or the circumstances of our birth and upbringing. But we do choose our perspective. We have the power to determine our perspective on life. Our perspective must not necessarily mirror our circumstances, especially, if these are less than ideal. In other words, our perspective doesn't have to be a mere reflection of the moment we are currently experiencing.

You can bring change to your situation by the way you choose to see it. The quality of what you see depends on the perspective from which you see it.

See moments of crisis or adversity as an opportunity to make something greater happen. I understand the Chinese word for crisis is weiji, made up of two words – wei, which means danger and ji, which means opportunity. It is up to you to choose on which side of the divide you fall. Don’t think about what adversity has taken from you. Instead think of what you have and what you can do.

Friend, you are never without hope in any adversity. There is always a way out. Napoleon Hill observed that, “Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.”

When we shift how we look at something, we open the door to new possibilities. There’s always a flip side to the difficulty. You see, a “problem” is often not a problem at all. It may actually be an opportunity. For instance, a problem may point out an adjustment you can make to improve certain conditions in your life. Without the problem, you never would have taken this positive action.

There is a tale about these two shoe salesmen who travel to a third world country in search of new business opportunities. One man calls his wife the moment he lands, telling her, “Honey, I’m coming back home. There’s no hope here. Nobody here is wearing shoes, so there’s no one to sell to.” He boards the next flight home.

The second man calls his wife and says, “Honey, you wouldn’t believe what I found here. There is so much opportunity. No one here is wearing shoes. I can sell to the whole country!”

See how powerful perspective is. The first man could not notice the huge opportunity because he did not have the right perspective of the situation. The other saw the same situation yet saw great opportunity because he interpreted the situation differently.

Ever read the Bible story about the twelve spies that were sent out to spy the land of Canaan (Numbers chapters 13 & 14)? Ten brought an evil report which stirred a whole nation negatively. Caleb and Joshua were the only two who had a good report. All twelve saw the same thing but two had a different perspective to what they saw. The Bible says, ‘they had another spirit.’ In other words they had a different way of looking at things.

They assigned a different meaning to what confronted them. They chose to walk by faith and not by sight. They did not deny the reality of what was before them; they only proffered a different view and meaning to that reality. They chose to follow God’s promise and refused to let their circumstances dictate to them what they should see and do.

Dear friend, the way you look at things (events, situations, circumstances) and the meaning you give to it goes a long way in determining the decisions and choices you make. In other words, your perspective influences your decisions.

Decide to see and interpret things differently from what is. When you do that you will empower yourself to take total charge of your life and influence your environment positively, as opposed to your environment influencing you. Get some fresh eyes and look at the same thing as it is but understand it differently.

It is important to note that success or failure is not determined by the number of challenges we face, rather by the way we choose to view and approach our challenges. Will you take the “lemons” of life and make lemonade with them or will you suck on them and make a sour face?

You can turn your perspective into a tool to overcome your present challenges or a tool to perpetuate them. So, your perspective can make or break you. You choose!

May God help you choose the right perspective in every situation you find yourself; for therein, is your victory. Every blessing...