I have always liked the metaphor that we all view the world through different lenses and believe that to be reality and that if only we could remove or change our lenses we would see things very differently and our behaviour would change accordingly. I was first introduced to this idea by Stephen R. Covey in his The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People some years ago.
So I was amused by this little e-mail from a good friend and enthusiastic knowledge cafe goer Ray Shaw. Thanks Ray for letting me share this.
It was a sunny day. I had only just returned from holiday and walking the dog. Evening drew near. The kitchen seemed a bit dark so I put on the lights. Many of them in fact for we have an array of down-lighters. They all seemed very dim, no more than almost candle power in the ceiling above. I don’t remember them being like this. I wondered if for some reason the electricity suppliers had reduced the power output, or was it simply the contrast with the brightness outside, or was there something wrong with our lighting system? At worse it was something else to get fixed, I thought.
And then it struck me. My own realization of stupidity: I still had my sunglasses on! I removed them and the room brightened up!
Nought, then, to do with the lights, the power supply, or anything to do with the world out-there. Everything to do with the lens through which I perceived the world. Change the lens and, in a moment, the world brightened up!
See how I said that? In such a misleading way? For the world did not change at all. The change was within me. Would that we could so easily change our lens more frequently, and so see the world differently.
We can. And, in so doing, grant ourselves a different power in the world, a power to be different in the world around us and thereby co-create a different order of result and experience in the world.
Enjoy your day. I know I will.
Ray Shaw
The Gurteen Knowledge Search Engine is a customised Google search engine that searches over 800 KM related websites and weblogs.
David Gurteen
Tea and scones at the Jane Austen Centre in Bath, July 2008.
I help people to share their knowledge; to learn from each other; to innovate and to work together effectively to make a difference!
