Fresh Perspectives

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new lands but in seeing with new eyes.”

Marcel Proust

Perspectives

Entrepreneurs and small business owners — and, in fact, even leaders at midsize and large companies — tend to suffer from the same problem: they want to control all the decisions at their company.

Bosses are often under the impression that they have reached their point today due to their excellent decision-making skills.

While this may be true to a certain extent, if you only ever consider your own perspective, you’ll miss out on some great ideas and solutions.

This is why you need to receive fresh perspectives in business frequently.

These fresh perspectives almost always come from listening to others.  Actively seeking support from people who think differently than you brings fresh energy to your issues.  This applies to product design, company operations, and just about everything else involving decision-making.

Advantages of Listening to Others

Here are several advantages to listening to others:

1. Become More Objective – It’s easy to create an echo chamber if you only listen to your partners and keep making decisions as always (status quo).
2. Reassess Your Point of View – There may be things you take for granted — when they’re actually just your opinions. Someone challenging those beliefs can open up a world of new possibilities.
3. Break Old Habits – Inviting fresh perspectives into your decision-making can mix things up and push you to take risks that will benefit your business in the long run.
4. Benefit from Experience – ideas from outside your niche can bring some of the most creative solutions.
5. Develop Flexibility – Forcing yourself to try something new pushes you out of your comfort zone and requires you to become flexible.
6. Create Leaders – Actively asking employees for their opinions lets them know you want to hear from them.
7. Focus on What Matters – Taking a step back and asking others their thoughts will allow you to see everything in a new light.

The Bible

Psalm 19:8 says,

“The commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes”

Perspective is like looking through a lens through which we see.  We are familiar with the idea of being on a hilltop, surveying the surrounding landscape, and getting a better perspective of how different landmarks relate to each other.

Similarly, we each have a position, a perspective, from which we view life; that perspective may be defined as our understanding of the relative importance of things.

Our perspective will affect how we perceive and respond to the world around us; it influences our attitudes toward relationships, work, money, and life itself.

Jesus referred to the importance of having a healthy perspective.

In His famous Sermon on the Mount, He challenged His listeners’ understanding, giving them a new way of looking at many aspects of life.  He then said,

“The eye is the light of the body.  So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.  If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness.” (Matthew 6:22-23)

Jesus was teaching that the way you see things isn’t just important, it is critical.

But how can we know if our perspective is healthy, as Jesus said?

If individual circumstances can influence our perspective, how may we know if the way we see things is correct?

King David, who wrote many of the Psalms, spoke of God’s Word as that which gives direction and clarity of vision in our lives:

“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Psalm 119:105),

“the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple” and “the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes” (Psalm 19:7b,8b).

As we read the Bible, believing it to be the inspired word of God, our perspective is shaped by God’s truth.  Then, we can interpret our circumstances and experiences through the lens of God’s unchanging wisdom.