Change

A simple change in one’s point of view can make a big difference. That is what I learned at Merle’s workshop, “Navigating Relationship Stress at Work.”

Perhaps I should rather say that the workshop brought back a childhood memory that supports this concept. One day in elementary school, we were asked to choose an object in the classroom to draw. I chose a dustpan (I guess that it was an interesting object for a kid at the time), put it straight in front of me, and started drawing it. It didn’t look anything like a dustpan by the time that I was done; it looked like an uneven square with a line coming out of it. When my classmate saw it, he said, “Why don’t you take a look at it from another angle? You don’t have to look at it squarely.” The idea opened my eyes to a different point of view.

Everything has 360 degrees, but we tend to only look at things from angles which we know. Sometimes we get caught in our own situations and forget to adjust our points of view. While I couldn’t change the dustpan to something else, I was able to change my view for a better outcome. Similarly, we can’t fix others, but we can change how we perceive them.

In the workshop, I also learned Muhammad Ali’s quote:

If my mind can Conceive it, and my heart can Believe it – then I can Achieve it.

I received the concept of changing my point of view, I believe in its impact, and I will achieve having improved interactions and relationships with those around me!

Merle, thank you for your awesome workshop!