Quotes About Perspective

There is no story that is not true.

If you don't like my story,write your own

The world has no end, and what is good among one people is an abomination with others.

People create stories create people; or rather stories create people create stories.

Until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.

This equation has helped many people I know identify the difference between practicing happiness and pursuing it. When my happiness feels elusive, I tend to ask myself, "What am I not being grateful for, and what am I pursuing that's distracting me from that gratitude?

EVENT + REACTION = OUTCOME Many people do not distinguish between something that happens to them and their reaction to it. Yet it isn't the event or situation that holds the emotional charge; it's our beliefs that create our response.

That may seem like a brain tease, but think of it this way: "Wanting What You Have" is like practicing gratitude. It means appreciating the good fortune in your life. "Having What You Want," to me, means that you are pursuing something that will give you gratification, potentially to the neglect of what you already have. In other words, The

Wanting What You Have" is like practicing gratitude. It means appreciating the good fortune in your life. "Having What You Want," to me, means that you are pursuing something that will give you gratification, potentially to the neglect of what you already have.

The researchers have found, in essence, that our advice to others tends to hinge on the single most important factor, while our own thinking flits among many variables. When we think of our friends, we see the forest. When we think of ourselves, we get stuck in the trees.§

To make our communications more effective, we need to shift our thinking from "What information do I need to convey?" to "What questions do I want my audience to ask?

In life, we can work so hard to get the kinks out that we forget to put the peaks in.

When people have the opportunity to collect information from the world, they are more likely to select information that supports their preexisting attitudes, beliefs, and actions.

Rather than focusing solely on what's new and different about the change to come, make an effort to remind people what's already been conquered.

Direct the Rider. What looks like resistance is often a lack of clarity. So provide crystal-clear direction. (Think 1% milk.) Motivate the Elephant. What looks like laziness is often exhaustion. The Rider can't get his way by force for very long. So it's critical that you engage people's emotional side

In highly successful change efforts, people find ways to help others see the problems or solutions in ways that influence emotions, not just thought.

spell out the benefit of the benefit. In other words, people don't buy quarter-inch drill bits. They buy quarter-inch holes so they can hang their children's pictures.

The advice we give others, then, has two big advantages: It naturally prioritizes the most important factors in the decision, and it downplays short-term emotions.

What they realized was that they didn't need their colleagues to understand something, they needed them to feel something.

Good metaphors are "generative."13 The psychologist Donald Schon introduced this term to describe metaphors that generate "new perceptions, explanations, and inventions." Many

If you want a reluctant Elephant to get moving, you need to shrink the change.

So how can you avoid letting these subtle emotions get the best of you? Get some distance.

A friend of a friend . . ." Have you ever noticed that our friends' friends have much more interesting lives than our friends themselves?

The other advantage of scaling the miracle is that it demystifies the journey. Let