Aug 27 2008
Point of View
Point of view is EVERYTHING. I’ve learned this from writing, but I’m amazed by how much it works in my real life. In a novel, the entire tone of the novel–and often its underlying meaning–changes as soon as one changes who is telling the story. Each character views the story differently. Each one has different goals. The trick is finding the right character to tell it, one who can see enough of what others are doing (and feeling), yet who maintains a view of the world that readers can both relate to and empathize with.
In our real lives, though, I am astonished by the effect point of view has on my everyday life. I’ll be going through what I believe is an awful day, yet my kids are having an awesome time. They teach me to sit back, see the world from their point of view, relax a bit more, and enjoy just living (even if I don’t get everything done I wish to). Yet I can also have a FABULOUS day, but when I try to describe it to others, they sympathize with me, as if my day was awful (and perhaps it would have been, to them).
I suppose the key to happiness is creating my world into what I truly love, or looking at my world with happy eyes, enjoying it for what it is (even when it isn’t perfect or doesn’t go exactly as I’d planned). If I start to grow dissatisfied, I need to jumpstart my attitude a bit, reframing it to change my point of view. (Glass half empty becomes glass half full–or, better yet, three-quarters full). I need to do something to shift my point of view, to change my attitude, whether it be cleaning, playing piano, singing, gardening, writing, or just snuggling with my kids and reading them a few books.
After all, isn’t attitude everything?
I don’t know if attitude is everything, but it is important. Perspective can do more than change your mood, though, it can open doors you didn’t see or didn’t think of.
I know, when I was depressed, every new “issue” stopped me cold. Feeling helpless and trapped can overwhelm you and make it impossible to address even the tiniest speedbump.
That’s when I knew I was coming out of it, when I stopped stopping and started immediately weighing options and getting a gameplan to address those issues.
It’s hard to feel helpless when you have options. And, if you can look at problems in a different way, sometimes that lets you see the options you didn’t even know were there.
I can’t pretend to know what you went through. I think you bring up a good point…attitude can change what you understand your options to be. When you don’t see options, it’s easier to stop. But if you can get beyond the feeling of hopelessness, of powerlessness, then you can get going and help yourself a lot more.