We’re going to run through a few exercises, all designed with the idea of changing our perspective. If you apply yourself to these exercises, they are going to change your life. At least they did mine. Consistently applied, a change in perspective changes how you view the world. This will change how you act.

There’s a well-known adage that perception is reality.

Let’s define perspective. According to our old friend Merriam-Webster, perspective is “a mental view or prospect.” That takes in a lot!

Here are a variety of ways to change your perspective. Each one will include actual action steps you can take! There are also free printables for some of the “perspective flips.” These are exercises to change your perspective.

{Side note: This is a LONG article. But each of the items can be looked at separately. They don’t “grow” on the one previously. So if you don’t have time to read it all, just pick a section that looks interesting.}

First we’re going to play around with time a little bit. I know, I know. It sounds weird. But even though we know we only have an allotted number of days, hours, and minutes in our life, life still tends to seem endless. But it’s not. It’s our most precious resource. We can’t buy more, we can’t renew it, we can’t earn or steal it.

Increase your productivity by changing your perspective on time. Your perspective is going to determine your outcomes.

Your day starts with 1,440 minutes. Assume you’re going to sleep about 7 & 1/2 hours. That will leave us with an even 1,000 minutes. For the ease of viewing things, let’s break those into 10-minutes blocks.

So you’re standing there looking at 100 little blocks, 10-minutes each, that you have to “spend” throughout the day.

I put a printable below that has 100 blocks. There is room for writing in each one. For one day, try tracking what you do (if you can)…or just estimate.

Remember, you have to brush your teeth, take showers, eat meals, etc. But this will get your thinking about it:
• Is going out for lunch worth the 4 or 5 blocks it will take? Or is grabbing a bite at your desk a better use of your time?
• While you’re working, and you check your e-mail for the fifth time…you’ve probably killed at least one block just re-checking your e-mail. Maybe only check it at specific times.
• Is going out to dinner or drinks with friends worth 6 or 7 blocks? If so, which friends do you really want to spend those blocks on?
• Standing in line somewhere. Maybe you should go at non-peak shopping times. Or can you use that block you spend standing in line on something productive (phones make this possible)?

Wait But Why did an amazing article “Your Life in Weeks.” This website is amazing! If you want your mind-blown and have some time (his articles are LONG), visit. I’m not going to steal his content. But if you want, flip on over and look at your life in weeks. But don’t forget to come back! There is a lot more here. And it’s more interesting than your life in weeks.

• Is wasting an hour a day on Facebook or other social media worth seven blocks off that sheet?! Or could you set a timer and limit yourself to 30 minutes?
• Do you want to steal back some of that 2 hours a day spent on cooking and eating? Or this a part of life you enjoy?
• Is arguing with the kids worth a block a day (seven blocks off the sheet)? If not, start researching ways to stop the arguments. You might have to try a few methods (not every kid is the same), but life shouldn’t be a constant struggle with the kids. At least, that’s what I’ve heard.

We looked at time and twisted it around so we could get a better perspective on life. Now, let’s try to change our point of view.

“My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.” – Maya Angelou

First, I did a post on “Healthy and Unhealthy Anger” if you’re interested in it. It’s not required reading, but it might be something you’re interested in. Yes, I actually did a worksheet for arguments and flipping the point of view. You don’t have to do this when the person you’re arguing is watching if you’re embarrassed. But it might help you calm down and work through the issues even if you do it on your own.

Scroll back to the top real quick and look at the featured image for this post. Bet you didn’t notice those mountains were upside down. Now you can’t unsee it! Finally seeing something from someone else’s perspective gives you the same feeling. Once you see it, you can’t unsee it.

Are you attributing to someone else emotions they may not be feeling? For example, I’m in a food blogger group. Someone was on there complaining that someone has posted the green, sick emoticon on one of their recipes. My initial reaction was that the person was trying to be funny and just didn’t like radishes. But the person took this as a statement on their recipe or blog…hell, their life from the way it sounded (they were very dramatic). Maybe someone just meant to be funny.

If you don’t want to work through the worksheet, you can work through the following action steps mentally:
• What is your point of view in the argument?
• Now, set aside your anger. Does the other person have any legitimate grievance? Even if not in the original problem, but how you might have treated them following it?
• Be clear what the real issue is. Is what you’re arguing about on the surface the real problem?
• Are you sure you understand their point of view? Are you 100% sure you’re not attributing emotions to them that they’re not feeling?
• Name three ways you can express your anger in a healthy fashion. What should you avoid?
• Name as many ways as you can that you can make amends.

“The world is a tragedy to those who feel, but a comedy to those who think.” ~Horace Walpole

A college professor gave us a list of controversial topics. We picked one. Then we wrote a paper arguing our position. Great! This was easy. But he was tricking us. The next week, we were assigned to argue the opposite side. I thought this was impossible. But I analyzed the arguments…and realized that maybe the other side has some good arguments too.

There are very, very few issues facing the world today in which one side is completely wrong. Life isn’t black and white. Once we accept that the other person has some valid points- even if you don’t agree with them overall- it’s easier to let go of some of the anger in arguments.

“If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a garden.” ~Frances Hodgson Burnett

You’ve heard the old saying “Don’t judge until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes.” What that saying doesn’t mention is that it’s impossible to truly walk a mile in their shoes.

Which means you’re attributing to other people motivations for their actions and feelings. This is necessary. Our minds are built to function like this. But we often don’t realize that our attributions are incorrect.

So you have two choices. Pick whichever action step you think will make life better.
• Assume the negative.
That person cutting you off is just an a**hole.
Janice is being a b*tch because that’s the way she is.
Neil ignored you when you waved the other day because he’s embarrassed by you and doesn’t like you.

• Assume the positive.
That person cutting you off was rude…but he’s desperately late for an appointment or in a rush because of an emergency.
Janice is being harsh today because she just found out her Mom is dying. Or because she had another argument with her husband.
Neil didn’t see you!

Look at those choices. Which do you think is going to make you happier in the long run?

I’m going to be straight up honest. This section is harsh. Life’s lessons can be that way. But it’s something I’ve learned in my life. If you want, skip this section. It’s not a feel-good section of writing. It’s a “you’re responsible” section of writing.

Some people never observe anything. Life just happens to them. They get by on little more than a kind of dumb persistence, and they resist with anger and resentment anything that might lift them out of that false serenity. ~Mother Superior Taraza in Dune Series

I have three things on my to-do list every single week: learn more about blogging, learn more about photography, learn more about design. Every single week of my life, I do something concrete to learn more about these three things which are vital to my long-term success. Sometimes I really don’t want to read yet another post or book about photography. But I always walk away having learned at least one thing.

More harsh advice. You choose who you have relationships with. Yes, you can’t choose your family. But you can choose both how often you interact with them and how you interact with them. Those two rules apply to everyone in your life.

The ‘how often’ is easy enough. Schedules are busy these days. Be busy.

But the ‘how’ is more complicated. Let’s say you know a Negative Nancy. To Nancy, the world is out to get her. If someone laughs, she assumes they’re laughing at her. If someone says “like mother, like daughter,” she assumes it was an insult. What do you do? Gently, but persistently point out a different way. If someone laughs and she starts complaining, put on a fake confused face and say “Oh, I thought they just heard a joke?”. If she hears an insult, put on another fake confused face and say “Oh, I thought she was saying it in a loving manner…like she thought it was cute or something!” This is one place in life where pretending works wonders.

Bad things are going to happen. But you choose how to react to them.

My sister-in-law lost her son Drew (he wasn’t even three) last year to cancer. She chose to accept it and has turned around lives by how much grace and positivity she brings to life.

Though I hate the Huffington Post, one of their articles did say something insightful: “When life comes and sweeps you off your feet, you have the choice to remain on the ground where people will coddle you or get up so people will be inspired by you.”.

The next section is all about flipping things around. From every negative comes at least one positive.

And the first lesson of all was the basic trust that he could learn. It’s shocking to find how many people do not believe they can learn, and how many more believe learning to be difficult. Muad’Dib knew that every experience carries its lesson. ~From the Dune Series

We all make mistakes in life. The fact we know it was a mistake means we have an opportunity to learn.

Action step: Take a mistake you’ve made. Ask:
• What should have done?
• What is one thing you’ve learned from it?
• Name one way you can apply this in your life in the future.

“The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.” ~Douglas Adams

In the larger scheme of things- your life this year, your life as a whole, the world- is this mistake really that big of a deal?

Have you ever flown in a plane and when the clouds aren’t covering the ground, watched the towns and roads below. How tiny each car (if you can see it!) appears. It always makes me a bit sad to travel. I see all these people and makes me feel so small in such a large world. But it also puts things in perspective for me.

The only thing you sometimes have control over is perspective. You don’t have control over your situation. But you have a choice about how you view it. ~Chris Pine

Mondays aren’t the end of the world. They’re a chance to make start a new week off fresh.

Stairs aren’t that horrible. Okay, yes, they are. But they’re also a chance to sneak in exercise.

If it really, truly is a negative- some things you just can’t make positive- accept that you can still choose how to react to the situation.