Episode 2: “The Pivot of Perspective: Shifting Your View to Change Your Life”

A shift of perspective can change everything! In this episode of Change Chasers, we explore how reframing challenges, setbacks, and uncertainties can unlock new opportunities. Learn how faith, mindset, and intentional action can help you see obstacles as stepping stones and pivot your perspective to stop stinkin' thinkin'! 

Faith in Action // Change in Motion

Transcript

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Well, hello. Hello. Welcome back friends. If you were here for episode one, then praise the Lord. I didn't run you off with, uh, being boring or making you feel like I wasted your time. And so welcome back. Uh, we are in episode two now, and so with this I say welcome. Two perspective shift the podcast where we are going to be shifting our perspective in today's episode of Change Chasers. And so hopefully, ideally today, we will lean in together and explore ways that we can transform our thinking, shift our mindset and live life more intentionally. And so welcome. I'm grateful to be on this journey with you of. Chasing change. My name is Mandy Ledford and I'm trying to host this thing. I'm just giving it a go, right, and seeing if I can be a blessing to somebody's day and or just even trying to pursue change on my own and grow as I am going. Today we're going to be diving into a powerful topic that's called the pivot of perspective. And so when I stop and I think about the question that I'd love to ask you all is, what if I told you that the way that you view, view, I mean a situation, any situation could be the key to unlocking peace, progress, and even purpose. Ooh, triple three, pee threat right there. Right? Peace, progress, and even purpose in your life. And so having the idea of thinking about that, it's not necessarily. About changing our circumstances always, that that might not even be possible, right? I mean, real talk sometimes, not everything is always possible. And so it could allow you to have the idea about changing how you see them, how do you see your circumstances? And so unlocking the idea of. How do we pursue peace, progress, and even purpose for our lives? And so sweet friends, maybe you're driving down the road. If so, then I hope you have a a few good little steering wheel. Little tap, tap taps and, woo, that was a good word. Or maybe you're wanting to grab a cup of coffee and sit back and get comfortable and let's see how together we can pivot our perspective. All right, here we go. Hot. Take number one. Hot take is what does it mean to pivot your perspective? And so when I stop and I think about this as I was preparing to just come and hopefully add some value to your life and your day is a pivot of perspective, is, in my opinion, a deliberate decision to change how you. Interpret a situation. It's about reframing challenges and adjusting your attitude and finding new ways to look at old problems, right? And so when we stop and we think about different ways that maybe we can try to grow as we're going, right, and I want to give you the idea of, imagine you're holding a glass of water and you can see that the glass itself is half full, or is it half empty? Right. And so the glass hasn't necessarily changed, but it's your perception of it that shifts your eer emotional response with it. And so the idea of thinking about, you've heard that before, do you see a glass half full or do you see a glass half empty? And so what is your perspective? And so here's the truth, when I stop and I think about perspective isn't fixed. It's flexible perspective isn't fixed. It's flexible. And when you learn to pivot, you empower yourself to handle life's obstacles with grace and resilience. That's one of my favorite R words. I love the word resilience, along with rescued, restored, and redeem. Can somebody gimme an amen in the corner? Right? But whenever we can know how to be empowered to be able to handle life's obstacles with grace and resilience. It's such a game changer. And so as I wanted to share a story that I've heard with you guys of, given you maybe a pivot in perspective, an idea of hearing. Hmm. Who are you in this story? So as the story goes, there are two shoe salesman. They're sent to a remote area to assess the market potential. One sent back a report saying, no one here wears shoes. No opportunity. The other sent back. No one here wears shoes. Unlimited potential, right? I mean, how cool is it? It's the same exact situation. They're seeing the exact same people, the exact same future customers, per se. A number two saw it that way, right? But they had two completely different perspectives. And ultimately two different outcomes in the story. So in that, are you the shoe salesman so to speak, that saw no opportunity? Or are you the one who said unlimited potential? Right. We come on, come set up shop.'cause we can do all the things and help all of these people. Just some little something to maybe make you go, Hmm. What's your perspective? My hot take Number two is why perspective matters. I believe that our perspective shapes our reality. And with that I'm gonna give you three, we three reasons. I almost said three reasons. I can't say my Rs, but to give you three reasons why this matters. Point number one is perspective affects your emotions even if we don't want it to whew y'all it straight up can. And so how you see a situation directly impacts how you feel about it. If you feel challenges as opportunities for growth, then you'll feel empowered rather than defeated. But if you don't, you won't. Right? Point number two, perspective drives your decisions. Your mindset influences your choices. A negative outlook often leads to hesitation or even giving up while a positive perspective encourages action and perseverance. Point number three, perspective changes relationships. Hmm. Boy, isn't that the truth Ever know about y'all? But I have dated some fuddy duds in my day and we, um, we just didn't make it'cause our perspective. Changes our relationships. But ideally, my point I wanna make here in all seriousness is that how you see others affects how you interact with them. So shifting your perspective can lead to more empathy, understanding, and even stronger connections. And so I've got some questions as we're kind of diving in and thinking about like, how do we fit into this whole idea of. How do we respond, right? What is our perspective? What are we putting into action? What are we allowing to have? And I mean, straight up occupy and precious real estate in our mind. What is it that we are thinking about? How are we reacting? And so when I think about perspective, I think about what's one situation in your life that could benefit from a new perspective. So maybe that's a question that you might wanna jot down and think about and just allow it to be something that makes you go, Hmm, what's one situation in my life that I could benefit from a new perspective? I'm joining you on that question. Sweet friends. All right. My next hot take number three is how to pivot your perspective. Whew. That's not always easy, is it? Especially if it's dealing with a, a trying or difficult situation or maybe even a situation that is absolutely completely out of your control. And so you may be like, Hmm, I don't know. How do I pivot my perspective? Well, let's get practical. You can actually change your perspective. I don't know if you've really ever thought about that, but we do have that power y'all to be able to think differently. I like to always say. Don't be stinking thinking or stop the stinking thinking. It's gotta be stinking and thinking together. I mean, you know, you gotta drop the G on both words and have it with that southern little twang and slang. No stinking thinking, right? And so in three steps of thinking about how we can actually change our perspective though, is number one, recognize your current lens. Pause and ask yourself. How am I viewing this situation right now? Is it helping or is it hurting me? Because I believe personally that self-awareness is the first step. So maybe if you're like me and you're trying to grow as you go, maybe, maybe the good Lord above has also been telling you to practice the pause. That's something really real, and it's probably gonna turn into its own podcast episode down the road because. Y'all, I'm, I'm a work in progress. I told y'all that on episode number one, hot Mess Express, driving the bus some days, right? That I need to learn to practice the pause. And in doing so, then it allows me to give myself the opportunity with some self-awareness of saying, Hey, how am I viewing this situation right now? How am I allowing this to affect me? Is my attitude helping me or is it hurting me? My point number two is sometimes we need to reframe the story, change the narrative that you're telling yourself, right? Instead of this happening to me, try to say, Hey, this is happening for me. Look for the lesson or opportunity in the challenge. That's just one of the things I try to do. I'm always trying to put a positive twist on whatever. Curve ball or difficult life circumstances that may be thrown my way because I believe y'all, that we get the opportunity to see things as an opportunity for growth, right? It could be a privilege to be able to sharpen us so that we can be the men and women that we have so wonderfully been created and called to be. My point number three is that we can seek gratitude. Gratitude is one of the most powerful tools for shifting perspective. So even in the hard times, man, y'all, if we, if we're always looking for something to have a positive attitude and a positive mindset, then y'all, we can find something. Always, always, always find something to be grateful for. And whenever we're looking for something to be grateful for. Then I have, I mean, I've lived it like it is real talk, just sharing this, that it will completely change my outlook and I hope the same for you that this inspires you to stop and think about like, man, I am, I'm having a hard time. I. And it's, you know, you just don't even have a clue what's going on in my life. Maybe that's your, maybe that's your real reality right now, and I will say to you, I'm sorry if you're having a tough time. If your days are long and hard and dark and dreary, then I want to encourage you of knowing that if you can just allow yourself to practice, pause, reframe. The story and seek gratitude, man, it'll be a game changer in your life. I'm living proof of trying to do these things. I believe that we can be overcomers. There's a quote that I love that says, only God can turn a mess into a message, a trial, into a triumph and a victim, into a victory. And so I just think that that's just an awesome approach of living life too, of allowing God to be. God, right? He doesn't necessarily need me to try to fix all the things and do all the things. He is faithful, and I truly am grateful. So that's one of my attitude of gratitude, gratitude mindsets on there. And so I wanna give you this example though of, you know, just real life, modern day living. Let's say that you are stuck in traffic. I don't know about y'all, but I'm not a fan of going through downtown Atlanta. For those of you that live in Georgia and you travel through Atlanta, it can sometimes take two, three hours to get through and it's just not enjoyable to me personally. But so for this lesson and trying to think about, okay, how can we pivot perspective. And let's say that you are stuck in traffic. And so instead of focusing on the frustration, we can think of it as a chance to listen to a podcast. Hey, maybe change chasers. Go ahead and stream'em all. Um, or your favorite, you know, song music, maybe a audio book, like whatever it is. Some way of trying to consume some content that can just make your day better and change your mindset. And so I would encourage you, maybe next time you're stuck in traffic. Hey, maybe that's an opportunity to stop and pray. Maybe listen to some content from podcast or audio book, or maybe even it's a time just to have a quiet moment to yourself. All right, hot take number four, real life stories of perspective shifts. And so thinking about personal growth through failure. I'm gonna share with you that a friend of mine once got laid off from her job, and at first y'all, she was absolutely devastated as we would all be right if we get laid off from our job, it would be really scary and hard and difficult. Um, all of the uncertainty as we talked about in episode one. But instead of spiral, spiraling, like just feeling like, oh, out of control and getting tore up from the floor up, as I like to say. She pivoted her perspective and saw it as an opportunity to pursue a career that she was truly passionate about, a dream big that she had always wanted to do. So today she's running her own business and she says that that job loss was the best thing that ever happened to her. That was a pivot in her perspective, right? And then it's allowed her now to find joy and peace, and she loves getting outta bed and going to work every day. And then I also think about the point of modern day application as sometimes y'all, we need to find some strength though in the midst of adversity. And so finding strength in adversity is not always easy. But an example of this comes from someone who battled a serious illness. And so instead of focusing on the pain, they viewed their journey as a way to appreciate life's small moments and strengthen relationships with loved ones. What a pivot of perspective, right? Gosh, that it would be not easy at all, no doubt. But what we focus on is what has our future, and so ideally thinking about how can we have better relationships, that is something we can control, right? I. And so my hot take number five, I'm excited to share with you guys is your call to action. And so that does mean a call to action. That's how I'm ending these podcasts. Al is that before we wrap up, I do wanna leave you with some of these thoughts. Maybe an opportunity for you to be able to challenge yourself and think about in this coming week of how can you see things differently. And what can you learn from even the most difficult situations in your life, right? The uncertainty of things and how can you release for peace? Whew, that one's its own doozy of a deal, right? But then also the question and thinking about where are there opportunities for me to grow and for me to be able to be the man and woman. Man or a woman that God's called and so graciously created me to be. And so I wanna encourage you to remember that the pivot of perspective doesn't mean ignoring difficulties. It simply means that you're choosing to see them in a way that empowers you. I love that word empower y'all, don't you? I mean, it just gets me fired up and I'm like, yes, let's go.'cause when people make us feel like we matter, oh, that changes everything for me. So I want you to hear this. You matter and you can do whatever it is that you so desperately desire to do. Empower yourself to not have stinking thinking, to pivot your perspective and to be able to shift. Don't drift to say, Hey, let's go. Alright, God, what are we gonna do today? So in my closing hot take, I wanna leave you with this thought that your perspective is one of the few things in life that you actually can control. So I hope that you'll use it wisely, and you'll discover that even the toughest situations can lead to growth, gratitude, and unexpected blessings. Thanks for tuning in to today's episode. Sweet Friends, I'm so grateful to be able to talk with you about Perspective Shift. If you found this episode helpful, I will ask, will you please share it so that it might be a blessing to someone else and allow your friend who listens to have a fresh perspective themselves. And don't forget to subscribe for more insights and hopefully some good old inspiration. Until next time, I'm Mandy, and I am so thankful and grateful to get to remind you that sometimes all it takes is to change your life. Man, y'all is a simple pivot in perspective, keep chasing change and living with purpose. Goodbye sweet friends.