TO FIND YOURSELF – MAKE IT ABOUT OTHERS

One of the women attending a recent Australian seminar of mine approached me afterward and told me she was very well known and had been involved in a very public scandal.

I didn’t recognise her and she didn’t tell me her name or provide any further details. In the aftermath of the scandal, she had been trying to make herself feel better by spending lots of money on shopping and holidays.

She was now seeking some concrete advice about getting her life back on track.

My suggestion was simple: “Get your hands dirty! Go out and hold babies in need or sing to an old person or serve food in a homeless shelter” I said. “You’ll find yourself again”

She seemed stunned for a moment but then something seemed to register with her. She thanked me and left.

The advice I gave this woman basically boils down to this: nothing will pull you out of your own stuff faster than realising your stuff isn’t so bad.

Intellectually, you know that many other people are worse off than you, but seeing what really is going on in the world first-hand is a wonderful way to put your own life into perspective.

You and your problems are not as important as you think they are.

Nothing will make you realise this more clearly – or make you feel better about yourself – than when there are grateful eyes looking back at you because you improved someone else condition a little bit.

“That’s all well and good”, you might say, “but, will it make my problems go away? Will it pay my mortgage? Will it heal my child’s life threatening illness?”

Maybe not. But it will give you perspective.

A mountain climber can’t get a sense of where she is on the mountain by staring at the ground beneath her feet, she must look up or down to get a sense of where she must go next.

Similarly, through developing a healthy perspective, you may gain clarity to hear your own wisdom directing you to take a certain action or find a resource that can help get you where you want to go.

Download & implement my advice in the next activity so you can continue to develop a healthy perspective for yourself.

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