Beauty or the bars? Mountain Lesson No.47

Is the glass half empty or half full for you?

Are you trusting or sceptical?

Do you look for what’s wrong, or notice what’s right?

When you look at this image, do you see the beauty and serenity of the waterfall and nature or do you see the rails and the bars of the safety fence? Some of us are programmed for positivity and seeing a glass as half full. While others are programmed to believe that a glass is half empty, seeing what’s wrong or what’s missing. Sometimes we will call these people realists. They may behave from a deficit or scarcity mentality. They see danger and risk before they see opportunity.

In Clifton Strengths terms, we might call this #Deliberative.

Trust me! We need both kinds of people. We need people who are attuned to see danger and risk and encourage comprehensive decision making. And this reminds me of the quote “what’s wrong is always available, but so is what’s right”. I was pondering on this for a while today and started using an app to remove the bars from this image, and then I remembered that when I closed my eyes I couldn’t see the bars, I could only hear the magical sound of the waterfall.

So, after that short deviation from my point (c’mon #Communication!) the lesson here is that if one of our senses is seeing or hearing or tasting something that we don’t like, then we can always ignore that sense just for a moment, and enjoy the beauty that another sense is experiencing. The waterfall will always be there, it’s just a matter of whether we choose to see it and hear it.

Now with COVID-19, it’s easy for us to focus on what’s wrong and be negative about everything. To ‘see the bars’. However, as we know, the restrictions that have been put in place have also allowed us to spend more time with family (if they’re in the same state) and to appreciate the simple things in life.

Use all your senses and look for the good in everything. For more strategies for managing those tendencies to look for what’s wrong and to turn them into assets, get in touch.

Be amazing!
Dan :)