The Power of Perspective for Leading and Living
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After Victoria Azarenka won the 2012 Australian Open, she paid special credit to her grandmother, “the person who inspires me the most in my life.” I guess the story behind the story is Victoria (Vika) turned tennis pro at 14 and it has not been an easy ride. She had a typical teenage attitude and was complaining to her grandmother about how hard this journey was to be a pro. Her grandmother gave her some tough love. She told her how she had been working three jobs and scrubbing floors just to survive in the old country. She told Vika that she was now an American kid, seeking "fame and glory, bucks and trophies. Shape up and get with it." In other words, if you want the glory then this is the price to be paid. And the rest is history. Putting life in perspective is a good thing to remember.
One quote I like it:
"If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change."
There are so many times in life when if we just put things in perspective, life is better and we can see more clearly.
There is a story that I often share in leadership classes and workshops from the book A Shot Guide to a Happy Life by Anna Quindlen. This is the story:
"I found one of my best teachers on the boardwalk at Coney Island many years ago. It was December, and I was doing a story about how the homeless suffer in the winter months. He and I sat on the edge of the wooden supports, dangling our feet over the side, and he told me about his schedule, panhandling the boulevard when the summer crowds were gone, sleeping in a church when the temperature went below freezing, hiding from the police amid the Tilt-A-Whirl and the Cyclone and some of the other seasonal rides.
But he told me that most of the time he stayed on the boardwalk, facing the water, just the way we were sitting now, even when it got cold and he had to wear his newspapers after he read them. And I asked him why. Why didn't he go to one of the shelters? Why didn't he check himself into the hospital for detox?
And he stared out at the ocean and said, 'Look at the view young lady. Look at the view.'
And every day, in some little way, I try to do what he said. I try to look at the view. That's all. Words of wisdom from a man with not a dime in his pocket, no place to go, nowhere to be. Look at the view. When I do what he said, I am never disappointed."
Interestingly, I had a similar experience in 2004 when we were in Hawaii.
There were street vendors lining the beach and I wanted to buy a woven basket made out of palm leaves. The man did not have one exactly as I wanted, but he said he would make it and I was to come back later. I asked him when he would be there because we were going here and we had to be there. And then we had a reservation here and an appointment there and ...
He proceeded to tell me that I needed to slow down. He wanted to know could I be so busy while on vacation. How come I was not relaxing? How could I have so much to do?
Then he told me how he lived on ocean front property and often just looked out at the ocean. He said the ocean had such a calming influence on him and that I should just sit and watch the waves. It was only when he pointed to the ocean and said, "That is my front yard--right there!" that I realized he was homeless. He lived right there on the beach--under the tent that he was using to protect him from the sun.
So when things start to bother me, I try to remember to "look at the view." Look at the view.
Why is it so hard to remember to look at the view?
Why is it so challenging to put things in perspective?
If we can only remember, "this too, shall pass."
