Gaining a new Perspective

Recently I've started viewing my life in larger segments of 6 months or a year and found this more rewarding, fulfilling and definitely less frustrating, than being impatient and trying to rush towards things you want every day.

Now I bring this up because I'm not known for my patience. I try and cram 5 years worth of a relationship into 6 months. I cannot save for anything. I'm not even patient enough to learn something, I just want it all and I want it now!! What has struck me lately, is it is hard not to think like this, without taking a step back and gaining some kind of perspective on the situation. This goes for many things in life. Relationships, jobs, social life and growing up.

Often, when I'm thinking of growing up and where I want my life to head, I usually find myself feeling nostalgic over something or other and often thinking I never experienced enough of whatever it may be and questioning, have I missed out on something? Could I have experienced more? My perspective is so close to the subject, I can't step back and look at the bigger picture without questioning whether I was fulfilled.

This type of thinking in the past, has led me into trying to re-experience different things, trying to relive a memory from the past or trying to capture whatever it is I feel I missed out on. But sometimes, it isn't that we have missed out on anything, sometimes, we've just forgotten.

Chatting to Sampras just the other day, he reminded me of the time Merlin and I went on a surf trip to Croyde and he visited us for the weekend.

A week of surfing, drinking, eating and being lazy, was punctuated by severe February weather, michelin man wetsuits, near drownings, collisions with rock reefs that looked like seaweed in the dark, me being saved from Hypothermia by Merlin (see, the boy is magic!), late night curries, once Sampras joined us and sinking a few beers in a 'locals' pub.

Now, until Sampras reminded me of this small, yet significant adventure, I probably hadn't thought about it for at least a few years. But once he had, so many good memories came back; from driving down there through snow, watching Merlin get wiped out by some heavy waves, performing housewife duties and cooking him breakfast and scrabbling for change to get the electricity meter back on once the temperature had dipped below freezing!

After this recollection of events, it got me thinking how many other good times and adventures I've shared with my brothers over the years that have drifted into the furthest reaches of my memory. My perspective on the past had made me forget a lot of what I had experienced. Time had merely past me by and covered these memories in its cobweb shadows, waiting for me to dust them off and relive them, in places like this blog.

The adventures never stop, that is what life is, a series of them. Sometimes, without taking a step back and getting a different perspective on events, we think of things slightly differently and usually unfavorably, to how they actually are or were.

Just by taking a step back, slowing things down and looking at the whole picture, we allow ourselves to gain a real perspective on our lives, both where we've been and where we plan to head.