My Perspective on Perspective

Lets take a moment and talk about perspective. We hear the word thrown around quite a bit now a days. Yet I feel we are missing the mark. So I want to talk about it a bit; my perspective on “perspective”.

To summarize the word “perspective”, it comes from one’s point of view. A person’s point of view comes from what they observe or how they “see” things. What do you think influences someone’s perspective? It is a conglomeration of what they were taught, what they experienced, seen, and heard in their life (to them or others), as well as the “meanings” and cause and effect they associate with their experiences. Now a days you will hear trauma is a driver of perspective…and it is a piece, don’t get me wrong. BUT…not everything in life is trauma and not everything can be chalked up to it either. Remember, we are all humans living life. We have so many more experiences outside of trauma. 

So whose perspective is right?

Does this mean your perspective is right? No.

Does this mean your perspective is wrong? No.

Again, your perspective is YOURS.

Right or wrong, let me reiterate, your perspective is made up of YOUR experiences. That doesn’t mean there aren’t opportunities to learn and grow, but that is for later post. Lets keep it simple and stay focused.

Now, let me be frank. We have quite a bit of absolutes going on in today’s society and we seem to have forgotten how COMPLEX the human experience is. I see people trying to “change” someone’s perspective to align with their own rather than ask how and why someone believes the way they do. I also see people label others with superficial names and ignore everything else about them. It has disheartened me even more to see people in my profession do the same to others when many know how to dive in deeper and learn about another humans point of view…but they don’t.

Perspective is a real opportunity to learn more about another human. Where they came from, what they learned and experience in life, etc. You don’t have to agree or accept someone else’s point of view, but I hope we can be RESPECT it.

Think about it.