Every now and then we all need to update to a new set of lenses and filters that we see the world through.
“When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change”
Late Wayne Dyer
In a more physical sense, if you live in a house with air-conditioning units, own a car, or have ever been exposed to any type of water treatment you are very aware that they all have filters included in them.
We need clean air to breathe in our homes, clean fuel and oil for our cars (unless you drive fully Electric car), and purified water to drink. All this is possible only through filtration.
Now, how does this relate to our professional and personal growth then…?
Well, here is a little personal story to illustrate the point better. This is something that happened during our everyday morning preparations for School for our son and work for us.
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It was a typical morning brewing our coffee and prepping some yummy oatmeal with fresh coconut milk. I had a quick call to Europe at 6 am, which happens a lot when you choose to live in the middle of the South Pacific. The time is getting close to seven now and I’m aware that I soon must start getting our 2-year-old ready for school.
I tried convincing him to start the shower routine and all the usual tasks that often go quite smoothly. Yet this particular morning he just didn’t want to. Instead kept playing in the garden with his favorite toys resisting my every ask or suggest that we should start to get ready.
30-40min goes past and by this stage, both of us my partner and I have tried our best to negotiate with him to even start the process… I’m getting slightly on my edge and losing hope to start on time with my day. Until I took the last option out of my bag of tricks, which surely should have always been the first.
What if I played my son’s game and behaved in a way that he understood me better…?
I turned the whole process into a play! I started laughing and behaving like I was a tractor who came to pick him up into the shower.
And Voila, just like that the process that had been not moving anywhere for the past 40min was done and dusted in 5min or less!
The takeaway:
I felt a little dumb not realizing that trying to impose my own will and methodologies on his way of seeing the world is not going to end up well.
His filters were obviously just very different from mine at that moment…
What I did right after was this journal entry for the day:
What if I changed my filters on how I see my professional work and personal growth too?
What if most activities I take part on from now on had to match at least one or preferably all of the following criteria?
· Is it exciting?
· Is it a challenge?
· Will it include parts of Play and Fun in it?
And that’s it! I felt so much lighter coming from an entirely different internal space and changing my old filters to new ones!
The air I’m breathing now feels clean, pure, and energized.
The lenses and filters that we put in front of our mind’s eyes each morning matter; a lot more than we often consciously think about!
When was the last time you changed or cleaned YOUR internal filters??
All Green Lights,
Tuomo
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