“The
more attention you shine on a particular subject, the more evidence of it will
grow. Attention is like light and air
and water. Shine attention on obstacles
and problems and they multiply lavishly.” Benjamin Zander
What we hope for in life too often is drowned out by all of
the perceived challenges and obstacles we see in front of us, preventing us
from achieving our hopes and dreams. The
interesting thing I’ve learned in life is that often, the challenges and
obstacles we face are all invented.
Each of us sees life through a different set of lenses. We all have our own frameworks that have been
built over years based on our experiences, beliefs, heartaches, and understanding
of how the world operates. Because of
these unique frameworks that each of us carry around, we see situations in a
certain light and frequently neglect to see all of the other possibilities that
surround us.
Two people can view a certain problem and circumstance very
differently. For example, as a youth
basketball coach I recently showed an incredible video of a very young child
doing very difficult basketball drills.
To me this video broadened my view of what I believed to be possible and
I felt inspired. With this in mind, I hoped
showing the video to my players would do the same for them. Unfortunately they quickly noticed something
that I had failed to notice the first time around and that is that this young
athlete in the video was a young daughter of an all-time NBA great. Seeing this immediately invocated feelings in
my players of how lucky and naturally gifted this young child must be how they
could never compare or compete.
Life is often like that.
We see obstacles and impossibilities where others may see opportunities. Rather than digging to find all of the opportunities
and possibilities, we instead look for the obstacles and impossibilities. And then rather than reaching for the stars,
we settle for something much less with a belief that the stars we seek are
always out of reach. We get stuck in a
framework of limitation and impossibility.
If we can all learn to change and expand our framework
however, and expand what we see, we can then begin to achieve so much more. Doing this requires a close examination of
the assumptions we have, that often we don’t even realize we have, that are
keeping us from achieving what we truly want.
And then we need to determine how we can change these assumptions to
different assumptions that allow us pathways of possibility.
Because the truth is, often every presumed dead-end we face,
is only a dead-end because of the framework we’ve developed around that particular
problem. There are always new frameworks
to create and possibilities to invent!
Look for a fresh set of eyes, a new approach, uncommon assumptions, and
new avenues will immediately come in to focus.
There is always an abundance of possibility. As we shine light on possibilities
rather than limitations and reasons why we can’t accomplish our hopes and
dreams, our capacity to achieve what we want in life will grow exponentially.
