Have you ever had such a lurch in perspective that for a while you barely recognized yourself in your surroundings? Today’s EWC article is all about perspective and its potential.
The last couple of days at Ever Widening Circles headquarters were a bit odd It was nothing horrific, mind you, but we seemed to be riding a roller-coaster. I was riding high off an amazing internal project (which you’ll all shortly be aware of, I promise!). A new side of me kicked in: the can-do side of me, the side that would take command of a sinking vessel. A new steely determination washed over me and an intuitive, instinct-driven responsiveness flourished in me that surprised me most.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtgGWAlZ90Y
Via: youtube.com[2]
Perhaps you’ve seen something like this before, but isn’t it incredible what we take for granted? Grains of sand, normally a common annoyance after a day at the beach, holds untold universes and pieces of what once was lives in its depths; a simple, now-archaic teaching utensil is formed of ancient pieces of the building blocks of life… wonderful!
Perspective doesn’t only apply to things so small we ignore them, though; sometimes changing a literal viewpoint is all it takes to see a different play with the same characters and story.
Not only are these fantastic little optical illusions, but they highlight in a completely different way than the 5Facts team’s video above that a new perspective can change things immensely: whether it’s a goofy dude drawing in the sand on the beach/playing a piano or two people standing on a Coca-Cola bottle/fifty feet away, a little perspective is a complete and utter game changer.
The Ever Widening Circles story relates in a different way, but still relies on the way in which we viewed the sitation. It started, innocently enough on Sunday. While coming home from her son’s out-of-town basketball tournament, Dr. Lynda was putting the pre-finishing touches on guest author Dr. Besty’s October 12th article 5 Great Websites You Might Not Know About, Part I, when she made what we’ve come to call “Chris’ Error”: she clicked “publish” before it was ready to be launched. In a panic, Dr. Lynda text messaged me, with terror dripping from every multiple-exclamation-pointed sentence. And in case you wonder what the concern is…
- Our system is set to fire an email to our 2,500-plus subscribers the second the article is initially published,
- We call it a “Chris Error” because, while I’d like to think of myself as a person who thrives in the perceived harshness of minutiae, I make this error far too often (and until this incident, exclusively),
- Dr. Lynda, as mentioned, was at the start of a five-hour road trip home, during which Internet connectivity was shabby at best,
- And I had planned to meet my mother for a late birthday lunch, and had under 30 minutes before I was due at her house.
Dr. Lynda’s anxiety skyrocketed and she furiously texted apologies, when from somewhere, a deep, Zen-like calm just washed over me. “Get out of the article, please,” I said, surely more calmly than she realized.
“I’m out! Do your magic. So, so sorry!” she replied, followed by radio silence.
I jumped in, and it was like I was in The Matrix. Seeing nothing but unnecessary coding — seriously, you guys, just like so much coding — my fingers started rapidly hammering away on the laptop keys. Dr. Lynda’s spoken about “flow” in the past, and let me tell you I was in it.
The curious thing about flow, Dr. Lynda tells me, is when it occurs, regardless of the actual time it takes, that amount of time is unrecognizable. I hit the “update” button, sent my Dr. Lynda a message to check out her updated article, arched my back to stretch, and realized: oh no! What time is it?! I looked…
16 minutes. Done. Close laptop. Keys, ignition, out the driveway.
A couple days later, this morning, October 14th, it would be my turn to make a faux pas once again. I stumbled on a neat little website plugin that, while not really fitting the modus operandi of Ever Widening Circles, might have some use if those features were trimmed a little. On a whim I decided to install the plugin, and *BANG!* I’m treated to this upon reloading my browser:
Okay… well, guess I’ll delete that plugin I gue- I started to think to myself, stopping when I realized the truth: the error broke the back-end of our site. I couldn’t even get to the spot to eliminate the problem… that was part of the problem!
But for the second time — and the first time I realized it for what it was — this enormous, calm, knowing command of the problem took hold of me. Another 15 minutes later, a few taps here and there on the keyboard, and *BANG!* The issue was fixed.
Where does perspective come into play?
After this little issue, one that would normally have had me cursing myself out under my breath and bullets, I messaged Dr. Lynda and let her know things were a-okay. And from somewhere, deep in the positive, harmoniously centered part of my being, my response was simple…
“Welp… At least… Nowhere to go but up, I guess!”
This is so important to remember: perspective. Thought I wouldn’t dare say it rectifies any situation — a different perspective isn’t going to plop an oasis in front of a thirst-starved desert wanderer — a new perspective on so many things can turn many of the seemingly hopeless situations into something good. Sunday I took a publish-misfire (a “Chris Error”) and turned it into one of Ever Widening Circles’ fan-favorites, giving us a ton of click-throughs to the sites we mentioned. Today I turned a crashed site — the website equivalent of when Dr. Lynda’s plumbing at her Fiddlehead Dental practice quit suddenly one day — and made it the day’s positive jumping point.
So with that I’ll leave you with a set of photos and a quick video on perspective, but also the question of the day: what could a new perspective do for you? From what is your current perspective holding you back? Is there even another way of viewing your given situation?
Remember today’s media: grain of sand is just a boring old grain of sand… until it’s under a microscope and you realize it’s a piece of something ancient; and just because perspective doesn’t necessarily bring the dehydrated desert traveler a magical oasis… that doesn’t mean there isn’t one over the next dune. If only that perspective changes a bit, it might be clearly in sight.
[1] Pugachevsky, Julia, “If Ron Swanson Quotes Were Motivational Posters.” buzzfeed.com, October 6, 2014.
[2] 5 Facts, “5 Hidden Worlds Revealed Under a Microscope (with Sesame Street).” youtube.com, April 3, 2014.
[3] arbili, “Perspective.” reddit.com, September 19, 2013.
[4] __mck__, “It’s all a matter of perspective.” reddit.com, August 25, 2014.
[5] Shickabamdesertwolf, “Perspective Can Be Awesome.” reddit.com, August 1, 2013.
[6] schlabu, “It’s a matter of perspective.” reddit.com, September 16, 2012.
[7] bertybigbollox, “Perspective explained.” reddit.com, January 1, 2014.
