Perspective for Free! Get Yours Today!

per·spec·tive

: the interrelation in which a subject or its parts are mentally viewed.


  I've been thinking a lot about perspective as I approach the start date of my 21-day vegan kickstart diet. What has changed in me and my views that I am willing to do something like this?
  Up until five years ago I held a perspective on how I should live my life. Mind you, I wasn't conscious about this perspective, but it was there.
  I suppose it was formed by my upbringing, my culture, my religion and my center of influence with friends and family. However it came to be, it drove virtually all of my decisions. Decisions relative to my career choices, my political choices, my friend and spouse choices, my church choices, my spending choices, even my food choices. Sadly, my perspective was skewed. And because I wasn't even aware that I had one, I was in a sad place.
  It wasn't until I was forced to grapple with really tough issues in my life that I was able to recognize that almost all of my choices were coming from the perspective that everything in my life centered in, on and around me! And I mean the most base part of me. 
  Even though I claimed to be a follower of Christ, and had given up pursuit of self, I was far from it! If I was hungry, I ate. If I was cold, I sought warmth. If I was lonely, I sought companionship. But I never sought to question why any of those things were so. So, I went through most of my life just making sure that my belly was full, my hair looked good, I lived in the 'right neighborhood', and so on. The road began and ended with me and there was no serious thought as to the rationale or potential consequences resulting from most of my choices.
  I'm thankful for the difficulties that came barreling down on us five years ago, else I fear I would have lived my whole life thinking only of me, my comfort and how things 'felt'. 
  Motivational speaker Brian Tracy says, "I found every single person I've ever spoken to had a turning point. The turning point was when they made a clear, specific, unequivocal decision that they were not going to live like this anymore; they were going to achieve success. Some people make that decision at 15 and some people make it at 50, and most people never make it at all".
  I was 45 when that moment of clarity came and I found myself making a clear and specific decision that, "I don't want to live like this anymore". My perspective came in to view and I recognized that I really could make changes that would not only change my life but those potentially those around me.
  It started out slowly but I began to question why I was doing the things I was doing and the choices I was making. It's taken quite a bit of tweaking and I expect that it's a lifetime ahead of learning but this idea of living with the proper perspective of how life is and what my part in it is life changing!
  If anyone had ever told me five years ago that I would be a vegetarian, I would have told them, they were out of their minds. However, prior to this decision I never thought about what I ate before; where it came from, how it was processed, what it did or didn't do for my body. It wasn't until I started asking the questions 'why' that I made the choice to change my diet. The same is true for our finances. The idea that we will be debt free in 10 months is staggering to me. We would have never recovered had we not asked the question 'why' as to how we were spending (er, wasting) our money.
  All of this to say, perspective is a good thing. Everyone has one and some of us can even say what they are!