If you were to place four people on four different corners of a single intersection and then cause two cars to crash into one another, you would wind up with four different stories. And the funny thing about those four different stories is that they would all be true! They would be true based on the perspectives and perceptions of each person. They would witness the exact same event – two cars crashing into one another – and yet have four different stories. This is an example of Clouded Perceptions.
Clouded Perceptions occur when we see an event only from one perspective – ours! Without the benefit of the perceptions and perspectives of others, we run the risk of missing important details about an event or person. We are frequently guilty of “seeing what we look for.” John Lubbock said it this way: “What we see depends mainly on what we look for.” This is true in so many contexts and yet the one where it is perhaps most true relates to our perceptions when facing difficulty.
How many times do we find ourselves dragged down by a daunting or difficult circumstance? How many times do we see only the bad or negative in a difficult situation? I’m guessing that it is more often than we care to admit! We are victimized by our own Clouded Perceptions.
What if we were to begin training our minds to view difficulty as an chance to do some Mining for Gold? Wouldn’t that be a novel way to approach difficulty?
Albert Einstein once said, “In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”
Mining for Gold! That’s what difficulty can be – the chance to find something powerful, unique, practical, essential! What is that something? Opportunity!
Each day we face difficulties of one sort or another. More often than not, we focus on the difficulty itself without realizing the opportunity hidden within! That opportunity might be a life lesson; a new relationship; a new idea; a solution to a long-term problem; a new business direction; an insight so profound it changes the context of our life!
When we focus on the difficulty itself we often become part of the difficulty rather than part of the discovery! We become part of the Clouded Perception!
May we begin to clear away those clouds. May we begin looking for something other than what we normally look for so that we may see things we might not otherwise see! May we always strive to Mine for the Gold at the heart of the Difficulty!
Peace!
Mark E. Hundley
