What Else Could This Mean?

Our reality and life is determined by the story we tell ourselves. This is something I've become more aware of recently and now that I see it, it shows up everywhere!?

Our perception is determined by the meaning we assign to the events in our life. Putting it another way, nothing is good or bad, right or wrong, up or down until we decide it to be so. Everything is neutral until we choose how we want to think and feel about it. This is what Wayne Dyer means he ways “Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change.”

The crazy part is we don’t feel like we have this power and control, and that’s because the majority of the time these choices are made without our awareness. Our unconscious mind makes these decisions for us based on our beliefs, past experiences, and understandings of the world to create the meaning we perceive.

So in order for us to change the meaning of our lives, and the outcome of how we think, feel, and relate with everything, we need to interrupt the unconscious pattern and make the decision conscious.?

Victor Frankl, a Holocaust survivor and psychotherapist who wrote the iconic book “Man’s Search For Meaning” would say that this is what happens between stimulus and response, and we cannot underestimate our ability to shape stimulus into response. Jack Canfield has a formula that goes E + R = O: Event + Response = Outcome, which essentially says the same thing.

So to invite a new perspective on something, and with that perspective mold the meaning to be one that is more empowering, productive, or supportive for us, we can ask a very simple question to initiate this conscious process.

What else could this mean?

The way you naturally feel, that’s the unconscious pattern. When you question that result and find ways to draw a different conclusion, then you’re beginning to generate a conscious response. And all you have to do to achieve that is ask a new question like “What else could this mean?”

Let’s say someone is fired from their job. The unconscious pattern might be to feel bad for themselves, feel worthless and like a failure. But when they ask this question, “What else could this mean?”, they get to fill in the blank with something more positive, like “I’m being protected from something” or “Now I get to pursue something I’m more passionate about".?

See? Same event, different meaning and therefore, different outcome.

So whatever it is that is weighing you down, ask yourself this new question and it will start to make you feel better about it and the role it plays in your life.

If you want to start consistently implementing new tools like this to improve your life and happiness, here's the step by step process.