Butchy: The importance of perspective

What do opinions columns, seemingly hopeless situations, introductory drawing courses and… What do opinions columns, seemingly hopeless situations, introductory drawing courses and Einstein’s theory of relativity all have in common?

The answer is simple but easily overlooked: perspective.

Think back to the last time you reached an impasse. Maybe you were bogged down by an overwhelming research project, exhausted with a frustrating living situation or vociferously at odds with a coworker or significant other. The situation likely seemed momentarily hopeless; the challenges insurmountable, or at least discouraging to the point of inaction.

The key word here: seemed.

It’s a fundamental truth of life that how you look at things matters — and more than in a glass half empty/half full type of way. In the vast majority of cases, it’s neither the scenarios nor the challenges we face in our lives that cause us the most strife and lead to the greatest losses. Instead, it’s the ways in which we perceive and approach them — our perspectives.

You probably already know this, to an extent. If you’ve never been told to look at a situation differently or broaden your perspective, I’d venture a guess that you’d be in the overwhelming minority. These are common phrases that characterize a common problem-solving and cooperation-boosting strategy. What’s less common is to see them sincerely applied,  even though the value of doing so is nearly inestimable.

Writing this column, I tried to think of examples of times I had challenged my own perspective and emerged better off. What I came up with instead was largely a long list of times that I had failed to do exactly that. There’s no doubt that, especially in the moment, taking a step back and allowing yourself to reform opinions is a difficult task. As I continued searching my memory, however, I realized that the circumstances under which I managed to take a fresh look at things all coincided with some of the most fulfilling moments of my life.

One in particular stands out. The summer after my senior year of high school, I was making preparations to head off to Pitt. It wasn’t the college I had wanted to find myself at in the fall; in fact, when I had submitted my free application during a tour, I hadn’t even really considered attending. Yet, financially, it was the best choice, and it became my destination.

I remember being surprised how, at the moment my family and I made the final decision, I forced my perception of the situation to change. I wasn’t about to approach my college experience unenthusiastically. So I tried looking at it the way my parents did: Pitt was a guarantee of a quality education at a well-esteemed institution. And I held on to the positives in the situation — the University wasn’t very near home, it was in a new city and it would be my first experience of public schooling. Somewhere along the line, I’ve forgotten what my original hesitations toward Pitt even were.

Because I was able in that one instance to reapproach a pretty important situation, I have so far experienced two and a half of the most enriching years of my life. Coming to a school I didn’t expect to attend not only forced me out of my comfort zone, but it also allowed me to embrace its absence. I don’t believe I would have had nearly as positive an experience at this University if I had first arrived wishing I were somewhere else. My perspective the preceding summer and especially those first few weeks allowed for my experience to happen.

Perspective is not positive or negative — it’s simply a reality: alterable but inescapable. We shouldn’t want to escape it. The vital thing to recognize is the nearly all-encompassing impact our individual perspectives have on our lives. While we shouldn’t seek to disown or disavow them, we should also not content ourselves with narrow definitions of correctness or stubborn unwillingness to consider other views.

The next time you’re engaged in a disagreement, take a couple seconds to consider genuinely the other person’s view. And the next time you’re faced with discouraging or frustrating circumstances, try approaching them with the attitude that you’re going to make it a personal challenge to make the best of them. In both situations, a simple reorganizing of one’s thoughts can reveal new potentials that might have otherwise gone unrecognized.

Perspective is a tool, a gift and even sort of a power. It’s why statisticians engage in multidimensional analysis, why writers travel to different countries and why those seeking enlightenment meditate. For being so plainly influential in all of our actions, perspective is probably the most difficult aspect of a situation to separate ourselves from. And for being a virtually universal experience, it is also possibly the most impossible thing that there is to share. But attempting to do so is not only necessary for human interaction; it’s also personally valuable. A fresh look at things can change a rut into a channel to new possibilities.

Ultimately, perspective is what we make of it. It can be a pessimistic hindrance, or it can be an optimistic impetus and a motivation to discuss, interact and learn. Like most things, it depends on how we look at it. Your perspective’s up to you.