Life Symmetry

The other morning, driving to my weekly networking meeting, I noticed a low flying helicopter. As it got closer, I noticed it was staying over the power lines . . . and there was someone sitting on a platform on the outside.

As I’m looking at this guy sitting up in the air like that, I’m thinking “there is no way I would do that!” I don’t do well with heights.

My next thought was “that must be a scary job”. Oh? Wait a minute! For me it would be scary. I know people who would love to fly like that. They might even pay for it. (The photo to the left is from Haverfield Corporation, who build helicopters just to do this.)

Hmmmm . . . interesting. There are so many ways to look at any one experience. The experience is neutral until we look at it or experience it ourselves. We know it’s neutral because different people experience it differently. Just ask. Police have known for years that they will get different reports of the same event. We all see things just a little bit differently.

We see things differently based on what we have learned and experienced in our life. We see life through filters that we have created over time. My filter said, “That looks like a scary job”. Some else’s filter would say, “That looks like a dream job”. Same event, different view.

For the most part, we simply think that how we see things is part of “who I am.” We don’t question it or even really look at it.

As an experiment, pick some ordinary event that you notice today. Become aware of what you believe about that event, what you saw, how you felt about it.

Now, here comes the fun part #1: how do you imagine someone else might see the event? How would they feel about it? Let your imagination run all over the place with this. It’s pretty amazing what you come up with!

For fun part #2: ask yourself two questions about how you responded to the event:

1. Is my response part of  how I know myself, “who I am”?
2. Who would I be if that response wasn’t part of “who I am”?

This little experiment can give you some valuable information about how you view your world, ways you have created limitations . . . even with things you really like. It’s also a way to get a clearer picture on what some of your subtle belief systems are. Once you know what they are, you can decide if they stay or go. What’s important is: you get to choose!