The Flipside - Perspective Matters
About Me
Ever since I went to university (feels like so long ago) I’ve been interested in how our own perspective influences the world, and how we are influenced by the way we perceive the world around us. However, it wasn’t until recently that I realised the importance of changing perspectives to become more understanding of others. Yes, we are all different but there is always some common ground. My aim is to find it, even when opinions differ. This was my aha moment (you can see what I mean in my first blog post here).
Why does this even matter? Well, it’s easy to get stuck in your own perspective based on what you’ve learned and experienced in life. Yet understanding someone else’s perspective is essential because it helps us interact and interpret information better, as well as learn how people relate to their own environments.
It also helps us evolve and develop, so the world moves forward for the better. Even the wise old philosophers like Socrates, Plato and Aristotle emphasised the importance of engaging in debates and dialogues as a method of exploring and refining new ideas to develop evolved perspectives. In fact, my background is technology and developing existing technologies further goes hand-in-hand with my belief in progress. The same applies to perspective. We can always develop and improve perspectives, taking into account other people’s views and opinions.
Therefore, as with technology, perspectives advance and the thought process is that new, evolved perspectives will become superior. This is because they combine the experiences, life learnings and wisdom of diverse people trying to understand each other (and build that understanding). Through this process, the world becomes more compassionate.
While that all sounds positive, I feel we’ve lost that ability. So, as I said earlier, I’ve been putting myself into other people’s shoes more often, thinking about their point of view, digesting their ideas or comments and questioning mine and other perspectives honestly. I know it’s difficult to change ourselves, we tend to revert to type but it can be done. We can all take a little time to try and understand each other, we can all engage better and even rethink!
During my perspectives journey, I started making notes of situations where I could apply my learning and experience. Each situation became a snowball of change for me and those around me, so I decided to share my these experiences here.
Share your stories
It’s not just about me – I would genuinely love to hear your own stories, so feel free to ping to share together.
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