Two Quotes To Change Your Perspective

“You never know your good breaks from your bad ones”. This was a line repeated over and over in Ina Garten’s memoir “Be Ready When the Luck Happens”. I appreciated this sentiment. You often hear people say things like, “it’s a good thing I got rejected from such and such college because….” “It’s a good thing I didn’t get the promotion because…” “I’m glad we didn’t get that house because…” “I am so glad so and so broke up with me because…” There are so many times we are devastated over things that turn out to be exactly the right thing. But you can’t know until later.

Another quote I like is from Dr. Ellen Langer, a well known mindfulness scholar. She suggests that “rather than stress over making the right decision, make the decision right”. She argues it is difficult to truly know if we made the right decision because there is no objective way to check that. We will never know how a different decision would actually turn out. She empowers us to make whatever decision we made right.

Both of these approaches—not knowing our good breaks from our bad ones and making our decisions right —are opportunities to flip the script. To take some control back. To not feel like a victim.

How does it feel to change perspective? Have you ever flipped your script? Re-evaluated something you thought was a bad break? Have you ever made a decision right, even if you weren’t sure it was the “right” decision? Bring these questions into your week and notice how they serve you.