Perspective

I wrote this one on January 17. With the recent passing of Kobe Bryant, his daughter and three others (unidentified at this time) I felt it was the right time to publish it.

I work really hard at maintaining proper perspective day to day. Often times I realize I’m giving things far more attention and thought than they deserve. It’s something I really have to consciously work at. I think it’s something most of us need to work a lot harder at.

It seems it’s easier and easier to get lost in our need to scroll. Five minutes away from the feed or the favorite app creates anxiety.

We care more about the opinions of others than ever before, even though those opinions are coming from people we don’t know, will never meet, and likely don’t really respect. The reasons for all of this are very complex. I’d argue it boils down to one reason, but it’s hard to hear – it’s laziness. Today, many aren’t living their own lives because it’s easier to live in the technology, live anonymously, not really live at all. Sorry for the tangent. The point I am trying to make is it’s very easy today to lose perspective because we are jumping from one thing to the next so quickly.

In the past two weeks I’ve come to know about two young (under 40) individuals that went from being seemingly fully healthy to being diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer – one has since passed away. If that doesn’t give perspective, I don’t know what will. I don’t mean that. I am confident it won’t give you perspective. It may buy you a couple minutes, maybe a conversation about the topic, but nothing that will stick – time to see what’s new in my feed…

Maybe it has to hit closer to home. I’ve been fortunate not to experience too much ill health or death in my life. That said, over the last couple weeks my perspective on things has changed due to some family things we have going on.

As I type this I am holding my baby girl, while my wife is having surgery (outpatient). The details aren’t important, but she is under anesthesia and they had to go over all the worst case scenarios with us. I have no reason to be worried, but that “chance” something could go wrong is terrifying. And no, I’m not terrified because I have seven kids 😀. (Update – surgery went great and after several days to recover – general soreness, etc. she is doing great).

Right after Christmas I spent time in the emergency room with my oldest son that put a good scare into me. Luckily, he is totally fine, but things like this immediately reset your idea of what matters and what doesn’t in this life.

How can we hold on to this feeling? I wish I knew. I fall back on the only thing I know, which is to be deliberate with my thoughts. Reminding myself often that whatever is consuming my mind likely isn’t that important, and even if it is, it will pass in minutes, maybe hours, or sometime days. The only way I can live my best life and be at my best for everyone else is to keep perspective. Everything that matters takes work – you have to put in the effort.

A couple quotes that resonate on the topic for me.

“Man is affected, not by events, but by the view he takes of them.” -Epictetus

“We suffer more in imagination than in reality.” -Seneca

#accountability #ivegot2more #endure #grind #7kids #fetalalcoholsyndrome #blendedfamily #noexcuses #perspective