A few years ago, I spend some time with Indigenous elder, Uncle Max Dulumunmun Harrison, in the Australian bush. At one point, he looked towards an area of dense bushland and asked our group: “What do you see?”. Everyone looked around, searching for something special. There wasn’t anything extraordinary to see. He waited patiently and listened to the few suggestions that the group came up with. He then offered his wisdom: “I see a big supermarket. There’s food, water, medicine, fibre for clothes, wood for building, shade protection and many more applications.”* Over the next few hours, he showed us some of the ‘store items’.
This experience stuck with me. It taught me many things. The most important insight is one that Stephen R Covey also expressed in his book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”:
“Each of us tends to think we see things as they are, that we are objective. But this is not the case. We see the world, not as it is, but as we are—or, as we are conditioned to see it. When we open our mouths to describe what we see, we in effect describe ourselves, our perceptions, our paradigms.”
How is this relevant for you?
Your mindset determines your results. Thus, it is worthwhile exploring what and how you think:
- How aware are you of what shapes your unique perspective?
- How well do your current perceptions and paradigms serve you and the world?
- What or who makes you think that there is really more change in your environment?- How do you define “enough” and “success”?
A small change in perspective can have a big impact on your results.