Perspective Change by Intent

Do you look at the future with anticipation and a belief that no matter what comes your way, you will succeed? Or, do you look at the future as hopeless, and there’s nothing that can be done to change it? What you believe has a lot to do with how well you weather the challenges in life.

Continuing on with our conversation thread from the last few days, let’s talk about how our beliefs affect what happens to us. A couple of things to keep in mind: 1) As human beings, we move toward and become like what we think about; and 2) Our present thoughts determine our future.

As human beings, we are goal-oriented. Also, we are picture-oriented. We think in pictures. If someone says, “purple polar bear,” you don’t see the words “purple” “polar” and “bear.” In your mind, you actually picture a purple polar bear. You see, we don’t see with our eyes. We pick up light with our eyes and then it is translated into images in our brains, depending upon how we’ve been conditioned to translate the light. Words create pictures, and we are drawn to those pictures.

So, if you believe the future is hopeless, you will be drawn to every hopeless, depressing, “it’s only going to get worse” story you can find – and you usually don’t need to search for very long. We are comfortable when we find evidence to prove what we believe is true, and we act in accordance with those beliefs. This is also known as a self-fulfilling prophecy. “I knew it was going to be bad, and it is.” We are programming ourselves to perceive only the negative.

The same thing holds true if we believe the future is full of opportunity, and that we have the power to make it even better. We will see evidence of the possibilities, and be drawn to them, because that’s what we are thinking about. It is not surprising that people who look with positive intent are healthier, happier and generally more successful at life.

So, how do we make that switch in belief? It’s all about changing that internal picture we hold, and it isn’t going to happen by accident. By taking the different perspective, it is made, first, by our intent.