The Challenging Power of Perspective

🎶 “Both Sides Now”, Joni Mitchell

I find it frustrating when I feel irritation toward someone who thinks differently than I do.

Because I want to be tolerant.

Everyone deserves their own principles.

Who am I to convince others?

And what makes my thoughts any better than theirs?

Opinions… we already have too many of them. So I try not to voice mine too much.

And then I also have a deep-rooted allergy to us-versus-them thinking.

But that creates a paradox.

Recently, I made myself guilty of it.

It was about food. Though context hardly matters—it could have been about anything.

Someone suggested that “they”—a population group far from here—have different, less civilized habits.

I could barely handle it. So I became firm.

“We also eat bananas, oranges, grapes here year-round. Completely normal for us. Yet I don’t see them growing here. From an ecological standpoint, that’s hardly responsible either. But it’s okay for us to do it?”

What I actually wanted to say: we point fingers at others so easily from within our own frame of reference. When we should first look at ourselves.

But by saying that—especially in that way—I point my finger too. Firmly.

Full of ego.

My opinion against his opinion.

A textbook example of us-versus-them thinking.

The very thing I despise, I make myself guilty of.

Nothing to be proud of.

And yet…

My business isn’t called “Perspectives” for nothing.

It’s crucial to keep seeing that every person, every culture looks at and lives from their own perspective—and that colors everything. That it doesn’t simply work to look through our own glasses from our own perspective and speak of wrong or worse or less.

Understanding and recognition grow precisely there.

In the challenging power of perspective. It changes everything.

So yes, perspective is challenging. I’m constantly confronted with and by it. Personally and professionally. But challenges are there to be met.

Right?

Love ❣️,

Maaike 

———-

About Love in Action

I love to create happiness by connecting people in my personal and professional life. So I am a mediator.

I also love words—because they connect too.

So I write loveposts and blogposts filled with heartfelt wishes, sprinkled with a touch of music.

My mission? 

Simple: spread love.

To inspire growth, kindness, and living with your eyes, mind, and heart wide open.

I dream of making the world a little warmer.

Love in Action — that’s what I believe in.

Will you join me? 🤍

Have a love note for me? 

Always welcome: contact@maaikegoyens.be