Looking With Fresh Eyes.

“The real act of discovery consists not in finding new lands but in seeing with new eyes.” - Marcel Proust

There are numbers drawn on the floor…there are two people standing on either side…one sees a 6 and the other sees a 9. They’re both right depending on where they can see from…yet they’re wrong for the other person. They could argue or change places with the other to change what they see. That is perspective.

The world would be a better place if we understood that ones perspective can be moulded, changed or explained. We would avoid wars and raise more empathetic and responsible kids if early in life we were taught that looking with fresh eyes and changing perspective is a strength, not a failing.

All too often we look at life with the eyes of yesterday. Everything that we see has our thoughts attached to it. As we look at something we attach a label to it , presume that it will be as it was before and then act accordingly.

As with most things, when you’ve done something for a long time you tend to fall into a pattern or a rut. You use your experience to recognise a pattern and then immediately apply the answer that worked the last time. We are likely to take the same route to work, eat the same type of food, visit the same places etc. we all create these ruts in our personal and professional lives too.

It’s all very well when the comfort zone is satisfied, but what happens when it doesn’t work? You find yourself with a challenge and the answer eludes you. The answer lies in seeing with fresh eyes…no biases, no preconceived right/wrong answers and absolutely no default solutions.

We never really know what we’re looking at, even when we’re seeing the most familiar things. Try this exercise, look at someone you live with, with fresh, new eyes…feel what you see…look at them as though for the first time. It’s not easy simply because our perceptions are filtered through memory! Our relationships with people and things are labelled by the past experiences we’ve had. But when we’re fresh and present everything expands to be more fully alive.

A very interesting example I read about was of a potato chip company. The company was struggling with a problem. The chips had too much oil on them. The manufacturers thought they could simply shake off the oil. It didn’t work and the chips started breaking. Stumped, they decided to crowd source an idea from people outside the industry. Lo and behold, the solution came from a concert violinist! He proposed playing a certain tone that would cause the oil on the chip to bead up and jump off the chips. And guess what? It worked! It’s not always that innovative ideas come from experts.

What we don’t notice offers a world of insight. What we see as ‘normal’ is only normal for us, not for others. What you have become used to, your skills, abilities, your knowledge and experience may turn out to be absolutely new for someone else.

Give yourself some leisure time for newness. There’s a word in French ‘flaneur’ meaning to stroll or lounge about. Even though it may seem self-indulgent it is a necessary symbol for scholars, artists, writers etc. it is a tool to re-discover areas you regularly travel….reflecting on what you see, hear or smell with a different motive…an way to emphasise inner reflection, like asking yourself, “why am I doing this?”

Many times the activities we engage in are a product of years of habit…habits which may not align with your present life. The point is to get out of your own head and see life from another perspective. And growth happens when you can unlearn and re-look at everything from a new perspective.

Cheers!

Until next time….

Ritu Malhotra