Perspective is everything.

As a society we are overly focused on doing. We are constantly making plans, filling our days with activities. When we want to make a change, we immediately jump to what action we can take, what we can do to improve our situation. Yet, so often we are missing the bigger picture, rushing past the fundamental step of stopping and taking stock at how we are looking at things.?

Perspective. How many of us stop and assess how we see the world around us? Our perspective is everything. Yet we rush on, blinkering ourselves, our lens narrowing as we blindly accept how we perceive things to be reality.

We have all heard the one about the glass - is it half full or half empty? What we may not realise is that the same theory applies to most situations. Are we struggling or growing? Can we not afford things or do we just want too much? Are we unhappy or are we on the wrong path? As Edison said, “I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.”?

The way we choose to view - and describe - ourselves and the world around us determines our life. The lens and language we use either empowers us or makes us a victim of our circumstances. The good news is we have the power to choose which it will be.

Having spent the past month focusing on the topic of perspective, it’s amazing how quickly things can change when you choose to pause and question your perception of events. When we stop focusing on what we can’t control and recalibrate to what we can - our perception, action, will. In the words of Shakespeare, “nothing neither good nor bad but thinking makes it so.”?

This month I am sharing some resources I have found useful in challenging my perspective. Many of them centre around art. We can learn a lot from artists when it comes to different ways of looking at things and experiencing the world - the added bonus is this is an enjoyable way to approach such a huge topic!

May this be the month we stop and take stock of our thoughts. Are you empowering or limiting yourself? Is your glass half full or half empty?

See What You’re Missing - Will Gompertz

Back in March, I was lucky enough to see Will Gompertz in conversation with Jennifer Higgie as part of a festival hosted by my favourite bookshop, Daunt Books in Marylebone.

Author of Think Like an Artist and What are you Looking at? Gompertz’s latest work dives into how artists and creatives see the world around us. Highlighting 31 works of art and the creators behind them, he dives into the minds of artists past and present, shedding light on how they experience the world and encouraging us to broaden our perspective.?

Filled with inspiring examples of the importance of how we filter the world, the stand out for me was the one featuring Eva Hesse. Having been close friends with Sol Lewitt for five years, in 1965 Hesse wrote to Lewitt speaking of her self doubt and creative block. Lewitt’s?response in the form of an encouraging hand written letter features one key word: DO.

The next day Hesse began playing around with some wire, sparking the realisation that she was now a sculptor as opposed to a painter. Something many of us can relate to at some point in our lives, we’re not necessarily bad at something, rather we’re running the wrong race.?

The Creative Act - Rick Rubin

A wise person once said that, as a rule, if something comes up three times they will follow the prompt. I like this as it stops me getting carried away on every whim. Rick Rubin’s book The Creative Act was referenced so many times I lost count, qualifying for my reading list very quickly.?

Divided into easily digestible thoughts while, as the name suggests, the book is technically about creativity, it is as much about perspective. In a similar vein to Gompertz’s work, the core message is that how one perceives the world is at the centre of what they create and their way of being.?

As Rubin points out in his first thought, while many people don’t consider themselves artists, everyone is a creator. Defining creating as bringing “something into existence that wasn’t there before” he points out that “through our ordinary state of being, we’re already creators in the most profound way, creating our experience of reality and composing the world we perceive.”

A beautiful book on how to open your eyes and mind to broaden your view of the world, I can highly recommend The Creative Act as a companion to unlocking a life of infinite possibilities.

Twist Museum

The perfect place to challenge your perspective, I visited Twist Museum on my last Friday of funemployment back in November. Coining themselves ‘London’s home of illusions’ and a ‘playground for your perceptions’ the exhibit was developed in collaboration with artists, neuroscientists and philosophers.

An immersive experience, each work and room is designed to test your mind and highlight how your brain interprets reality. A fun and insightful example of how you experience and understand the world around you, you’re guaranteed to walk out with an open mind and broader view.

Lightroom

Immersive exhibitions are all the rage right now... who wants to look at a picture hanging on a wall when you can sit within that picture projected on four walls?!

Some are better than others. Lightroom in King's Cross falls into this category. Showcasing David Hockney: Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away), the space is designed to take the viewer on a journey through Hockney’s sixty year career as an artist, as seen through his eyes.?

Broken into six ‘themed’ chapters, the projection covers Hockney’s varied work and lifelong fascination with different media. However it is his commentary that was the highlight for me. Hearing how the artist experiences the world and encourages the viewer to look more closely and find the feeling behind what is seen at surface level stayed with me long after I left.

A rare opportunity to immerse yourself in the mind of an incredible artist, Hockney reveal his process as he experiments with perspective, using photography as a way of ‘drawing with a camera’, capturing the passing of time with Polaroids and showing us how he approached the task of conveying the vastness of the Grand Canyon.?

All about perspective, one particular piece of his commentary that caught my attention was when Hockney said that “one perspective is one time. There’s something wrong if time has stopped. It doesn’t stop.”

Forget the elephant in the room, have you heard the one about the three blind men?

Unable to see the elephant for what it is, each of the blind men touch a part of it and guess. One touches the trunk and believes it’s a snake. The second touches the elephant’s leg and thinks it’s a tree. The third blind man touches the tail and identifies it as a broom.?

Without being able to feel the elephant from all sides, none of the blind men are able to correctly identify it.?

A strong example for life, all too often we narrow our view of reality, only seeing things from a certain angle or standpoint. Maybe we’re biased or shaped by a discipline or an ideology. But the end result is the same. When we only see things from a single lens, we are like the blind men — trying to view the whole truth from one, limited angle.

One of the reasons it’s important to surround yourself with people from different backgrounds with diverse views, you can also be aware of questioning your perspective. Try to cover the whole elephant, not just one part of it.

“No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man.” - Heraclitus

One of my favourite things to remember is that the sun is always there. I’m reminded of this every time I fly. It can be grey and rainy, but at some point, after you surpass the clouds, there will be the bright, brilliant sun. Where it’s always been - whether you can see it or not.

A great metaphor for life, I hope this instalment of?Future You?has sparked some inspiration. If so, please do share it with a friend or colleague who could also find it useful - or use a change of perspective!

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this month’s topic including any resources that help you to broaden your mind in the comments below.?

Best,

SJ