The Usual Route; In Reverse

Look, I’ll be honest. While there are thousands of these blog articles, the topics aren’t that wide ranging. I’m only interested in so many things and you could argue that the most meaningful lessons come from a small(ish) set of principles. One of the topics I’m most passionate about is at the heart of the development we do internally with Coach’s Prep 101 and externally with the ‘Hold the Standard’ Summit. What I’m talking about are the mechanisms for growth and development. 

When we look at this with an essentialist point of view, it comes down to taking on new perspectives. We must break our frame of view to grow it.

While it’s cliche, I was taken aback at how incredible it was to experience this exemplified in something as simple as my walking route. Many mornings I try to walk through the neighborhood to increase creativity and find some head space. The route I take is generally a simple loop behind my house. And, I choose this route because it has particularly interesting architecture. 

The other day, however, I decided to take this route in reverse. Since I’m obsessed with architecture and design, I can say unequivocally that I have made this walk countless times and I’ve stared at nothing but the homes. Taking the route in reverse exceeded even the most liberal assumptions I would have made about how different the perspective would feel. I noticed massive glaring differences and was completely enchanted by something as simple as seeing these homes while walking from the other direction. I felt this too the point where parts of the route felt completely new and unfamiliar. 

Silly example? Sure. However, the votes continue to come in for the power of taking on opposing perspectives. Taking a walk in a new route could be a low hanging fruit way to try this on for size. Other ways could be having conversions and taking advice from people that disagree with you or taking in information from an opposing news source. 

Mix up your view. We’ll all benefit from it.