Getting a Fresh Perspective Can Give You a Fresh Start

Unlike my aunt (that’s not her to the left, btw), who doesn’t miss a single serve, I don’t really follow the sport of tennis much anymore.  The “characters” are pretty much gone, so I have to admit I lost interest.  Something caught my eye in a newspaper this week, though.   I saw a picture of a very young girl, a professional tennis player, and beneath the picture was the word Retired.  At 25.  According to the story, she’d lost her passion for the sport.

We’ve all been there, right?  Irregardless of our career path or walk in life - sometimes the next step seems more monumental than all the ones before.  Other times, the steps ahead seem blase’, unimportant, and fail to inspire us any more than Jack Black in a Speedo.

I’ve been there before.  Because, irregardless of what some people may think, just because you work from home doesn’t mean it isn’t work.  When web publishers, writers, graphic artists, web designers, etc. sit and work for hours each day - it’s not exactly free time!   Yes, working from home has huge, beautiful benefits - but the lack of respect and the jokes about “getting a job” are enough to make a person want to eat pencils.

That’s why I don’t keep pencils on my desk.

Oh, and my, my, my…  A word about full-time mothers.  You want to talk about WORK?!?!  If anyone assumes that a full time mother doesn’t work - I’d invite them to do what she does.  If they survived a full day, they’d give her flowers the next day and well-deserved respect every day thereafter. 

Irregardless of where you work or what you do, there will be times when your motivation and, even, inspiration, fail you.  Fortunately you don’t have to stay in the Lost Zone.  

There have been days when I’ll open a blog editor or pick up a pen and paper to write an article and…. and, nothing.  I’ll just stare at the white space until I get swimmy eyed, then I close whatever it is I have open along with my mind.  Sometimes “it” just isn’t there and for the life of me I don’t know where “it” went.

Lost Zone, incidentally, is a name I came up with for this feeling while I was in high school.  I loved Literature, English, Composition, Biology,  Spanish, and History.  (I don’t have any kind words for Math and it doesn’t have any for me.)  Still, there would be times when I just didn’t care if I finished the Shakespeare play I was reading at the time or if I ever saw another art thou again.

My mom and my Bassett Hound would always tell me to leave the books for a while and do something else.  Mom would suggest cleaning my room, “Honey” would suggest a walk. We walked a lot.

When you feel like you’re in the Lost Zone, you need a new perspective.  Fortunately, one can be found just around the corner.  Below are a few of their favorite hiding places:

• New Perspectives love to hide near water.  Lakes, Oceans, Rivers - you can almost always find one simply by looking out over a beautiful body of water. 
• Parks.  Whether it’s a State Park or a City Park, these are some of the most ALIVE places on earth.  One of the great things about them is the way they conjur up amazing memories from yesterday.  Trips to the park when we were children, times we took our little ones to the park, etc.  It was even in a park, by a lake, sitting at a picnic table that my husband asked me to marry him.  Is it any wonder water and parks are numbers one and two?!
• Don’t look now, but a new perspective might just be in your own yard!  Grilling out, planting flowers, feeding birds (and squirrels, raccoons, possums…), soaking up a few rays, spying on the neighbors, petting your cat or dog, throwing a frisbee - they’re all perfect ways to just get away from it all and find a new perspective.
• Taking a ride through the country - or across the country - can do wonders to clear your head.  Some people (moi included) like to turn the radio up, sing along, and even, when the move hits, do a little seat dancing.  Others like to just roll the windows down, turn the radio off and listen to the world as it passes by.  That’s cool, too.
• Watching a movie is also a great escape.  Whether it’s on your sofa or your nearest movie theater, this one’s a great way to get away.  (Btw, if you haven’t seen Iron Man yet, you really should - I’ve seen it twice and that’s something I never do.  What’s even more telling is I’d go a third time!  Yeah, he can fly. And, yeah, I loved it.)
• The zoo!  Another one of my favorite places on the entire earth is the zoo.  Even though I always make my husband spend a fortune in the gift shop.  (This polar bear figurine, that lion coffee mug, those stuffed bears…)  Watching amazing, beautiful, and always entertaining animals takes you away from anything and everything troubling, unsettling, or even mildly annoying.  Who could fret over writer’s block when a monkey is clowning at one turn and a polar bear is taking a dive at the next?

A Fresh Perspective will do a world of good when you need a break.  

The ones above are just a few of my favorites - your own fresh perspective may be hiding on a golf course, in a fishing boat, in a bowling alley, etc.  It may be at a baseball, basketball, or football game.  Sporting events are great places to get away from it all and just have fun.  If you need and want a fresh perspective, it’s there waiting for you.

Make it a point to find at least one this weekend.  Monday will thank you for it!