Another Perspective

Have you ever wondered how others see you?
Have you ever stepped back from your life and looked at it as though you were an objective bystander?
Have you ever felt stuck and asked a loved one to offer guidance and perspective?

A few months ago, Dan and I were on a call with a wonderful life coach, and she asked us how we defined success. At the time, we were in the mindset of “when this happens – we’ll feel truly successful.” We quickly listed off many things that needed to happen in our lives for us to feel like we were successful. Our list went something like this:

We will feel successful when we…
are the bestselling authors of inspirational books.
have inspired many people through our writing and how we live our lives.
make a certain amount of money.
move into our dream home.
find a way to balance it all and still have time for ourselves and each other.
And the list went on and on.

When we had finished listing things off, she said something that truly opened my eyes. She said she already saw us as successful.
She listed the following examples:
We had started a business that was still supporting us seven years later.
We had fallen in love and built our lives around being together.
We created products that inspired people to go within and live their best lives.
We were featured on Etsy as an example of someone who was able to work for themselves and make a living at it.
Our jou
als were bestsellers on the top spirituality-based website.

And while we felt that we still had a lot of work and growing and accomplishing and inspiring and creating and living to do – in her eyes we were already there.
We were successful.
This truly changed the way I looked at my life.
Instead of constantly striving for the next level, I began to look at what I had already accomplished and sit with it for awhile. Be still with it. Pat myself on the back. And acknowledge my success.

Sometimes we need another’s perspective to see how far we have come.
Try seeing your life through someone else’s eyes.

Your loved ones and friends don’t have your inner critic. They don’t have your checklist and goals in their minds. All they see is where you have been and where you are now.
And because of this, they will be able to give you a fresh perspective of how far you have come.

Go ahead and ask a friend to tell you how they see you.
Have them tell you how your life looks through their eyes.

Ask them to look at you through eyes of love and support and describe how much you have grown and how much you have succeeded.
Sometimes when we are feeling down and stuck, having another perspective is all it takes to allow us to step out of ourselves and our rut and our negative self talk and move forward into a positive space.
Learning to love ourselves right where we are is so crucial, and this is a great way to start doing just that!