Glasses. These are those round spectacles that many of us will have to begin to don once we turn 40 and sometimes make use look more "mature" than we would look without them. Outside of the typical usage of these to increase one's ability to read road signs from a distance or read a book that right in front of one's nose, there is also a metaphorical uses of glasses that can help each of us in our daily interactions with other that will improve our ability to live more productive and fulfilling lives. I refer to the ability to look at the world (different scenarios, people, yourself) through different sets of glasses when the situation merits it to accomplish a number of different tasks that will benefit us throughout our lives. In this week's blog, I wanted to share some of the major benefits of making this a regular practice in your life by focusing on its three major areas of benefit.
It can help you see your areas of weakness.
Often, when we look at ourselves, we generally think about what we see in the mirror. We typically feel that there are very few things about us that are not "perfect" but, surprisingly, we don't know many other people that are. For this reason, it helps tremendously if you are able to take a hard, objective look at yourself from time to time, as a stranger would. One exercise that will initially help with this would be to look at yourself in the mirror as as stranger would and quickly assess what would be your initial impression. Is your hair somewhat disheveled? Do you have extra weight that isn't attractive? Do your close fit on your well or are they too tight or too baggy? By doing this, we can get a quick snapshot into how we physically may come across to people to improve any areas of deficiency that we may see. Whether it gives you motivation to lose weight, do a better job of with your hair, or buy a whole new wardrobe, this can help you quickly assess where you need to improve. Now, let's turn this inward and identify the psychological or emotional areas in which we can do better. We should look at our behaviors and, instead of rationalizing them by the different "special scenarios" going on in our lives, we should look at them from the outside as a stranger would to get a sense of what they would think. This will allow us to more objectively assess our behaviors and give us more motivation to change those that present the wrong image or are holding us back from our various goals.
It gives you a different perspective to solve problems
Whenever we are put in a tough situation in which we just can't seem to come up with an answer, often if we remove ourselves from the scenario and look at it from the perspective of someone from the outside looking in or from the perspective of the adversarial party (if there is one), this will often give us an opportunity to come up with a creative solution that we may not have identified before due to our intimate involvement, and often skewed perspective, on the situation. This can be done in a number of ways. If you are typically a very emotional person, perhaps trying to look at a situation more analytically would help you identify a solution that is better for all parties involved. If you're in one specific group of people that is facing a problem with another group, perhaps trying to understand what is important to them by looking at the situation from their perspective will shed light on a resolution that would've never been identified had you not put yourself in their shoes.
It allows you to be more sympathetic to others
We know ourselves better than we know anyone else, so there are number of different things we may say or do that we automatically know what they indicate about us and what we mean by them. Unfortunately, everyone is not wired in the same manner that we are and often, our reaction or approach to a situation can be interpreted completely different from what we intended. This can often lead to negative impacts in your interactions with others and not allow you to achieve the results you desire. When working with other people (especially at work), always try to think what their lives are like and what this means in relation to how they may approach a situation in contrast to your approach. This can often allow you to easier communicate with this person and have a better overall understanding of who they are and what makes them tick to establish a deeper and more meaningful relationship. This is also very helpful in relationships/friendships in which a disagreement can be resolved by just truly understanding the other parties point of view. At the end of the day, this can make all the difference in the world.
Perspective. It seems so easy to have, but we often have a tendency to only have one: OURS. By consistently practicing wearing the glasses of other individuals in our lives, we are way more apt to identify our flaws easier, solve problems faster, and relate to others better. And while some people may not like the way they look in a pair, the benefits of sometimes having "four eyes" will beat out what two can do any day.
Ken Middleton is an Account Manager at TEKsystems that specializes in IT staffing and services. He is a graduate of UNC-Pembroke and current MBA student at Scheller College of Business at Georgia Tech.
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