When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change
Posted on October 08, 2022 by Anuj Chadha, One of Thousands of Executive Coaches on Noomii.
How we see life's challenges can help us to overcome a lot of internal strife and indecision!
For many years I was not a swimmer. In fact, I was petrified of swimming pools. Until the day I let go of my fear of water, and then, magically I started loving the experience of jumping into a pool of cool and welcoming water!
For most of my life I was not a dog lover. In my school years, I was scared of the surprisingly loud pom at my cousins’ place. In more recent years I developed enough courage to pet (only for a few seconds!) the beagle at my sister’s home – probably more out of embarrassment than out of a feeling of ease. The fear was strong until three weeks back, when 7-month old Fae, our rescued miracle-pup, came home and I surrendered completely to the licks and bites of this loving doggo!
When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change. This famous quote, credited to Wayne Dyer, can help us to overcome a lot of internal strife and indecision that we go through before we eventually decide what to do and how to do it.
In the Bhagavad Gita, Sri Krishna calls it “Karmasu Kaushalam” or Skill in Action. He asks Arjuna to change the internal attitude with which he is approaching the battle – change from an attitude of attachment and delusion, to an attitude of embracing the moment that has brought him there.
Similarly, in the battlefield of our daily lives, we are faced with many decisions and occasions where the attitude with which we look at the situation and things around us can totally change the way things are for us.
- An important presentation to a senior leader can either frighten us into inaction, or inspire us into action
- The culture in our organization can discourage us, forcing us to change our job, or encourage us to change the culture within the same organization.
- Our manager’s harsh words can hurt us and make us feel victimized, or spur us into great performance that shines far beyond the influence of the manager.
The key message is that the External aspects of ‘what we are doing’ does not necessarily have to change for the Internal shift in ‘how we are doing it’ to happen. As they say, we will attract the same situations in different forms until we learn the lesson and transcend whatever it is that is holding us back!
In my case, it took me more than forty years of reluctance and finally adopting Fae to overcome my fear of dogs. We can either embrace the Magic of the Universe, of ‘What Is’, or resist the internal change … until it becomes inevitable!
