The Power of Perspective

One of the most valuable lessons I’ve learned during my placement at Perspective Counseling (suitably named), is the power of perspective.

Once my family and I decided to make the move from Alabama to Devon, England, it seemed like every stumbling block was a sign from the universe that we were making the wrong decision: challenges with selling our home, transfer of qualifications and educations, costs, barriers to transport our family pet, fallouts with family members – you name it.

Time and time again, my husband and I have asked ourselves if we’re making the right decision based on all of the challenges we have endured. We are now one week away from the biggest uprooting of our lives and, here we go again, another obstacle. I won’t bore you with the details because they are just that – details.

We have a decision now to allow our perspective to be our power or our prison.

We can choose to view every challenge, barrier, and obstacle as a sign to stay put in America, which would certainly be the easiest option.. the alternative is to focus on the fact that every challenge we’ve met has been overcome. Managing expectations and navigating struggles will be what makes us or breaks us.

On the flip side of the struggles have been all the positives that have come out of this decision to move. We met an amazing new family (new homebuyers) who we would have never met if we hadn’t decided to move to England. All of the enjoyable goodbye dinners and parties wouldn’t have happened. I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to sit on my dad’s front porch every night and build a new relationship with him and my step-mom. Again, the list goes on. And, again, the conversation somehow always comes back to “wow, we have some really get family/friends/co-workers.. are we making the right decision to leave all of this?”

We have the decision, every day, to focus on the challenges, the heartaches, or the “what could have beens”, OR we can focus on these two things:

*Life is hard, but it’s a Good Life: the idea of a perfectly seamless departure is unrealistic. There will be hoops to jump through, barriers to overcome, and losses. I choose to focus on the fact that we have, time and time again, overcome every challenge we’ve faced thus far.

*The joy is in the journey: all the “good” that we have experienced as a result of announcing our leaving is just that – a result. THIS is the journey! We’ve met new friends along the way, have strengthened our resilience for distress and discomfort, and we’ve reinforced relationships with our loved ones.

Your perspective can be your POWER or your prison. -Trent Shelton

I choose the power of perspective (and love! – queue Celine Dion).