Change Your Perspective & Change Your World!
Can a change in your perspective really change your world? YES! Recently I purchased several copies of the book “100 Side Hustles: Unexpected Ideas for Making Extra Money Without Quitting Your Day Job” with the intent of influencing the perspectives of our sons who are all in their twenties. My goal is to have them train their minds to be successful in identifying current unmet needs in our society, the opportunities that exist within those unmet needs, and developing strategies that would help others satisfy those unmet needs.
It’s no secret that each of our four sons has repeatedly uttered the phrase “My dad is so weird” but it’s been uttered in a very loving way. And, frankly, it’s a true statement that drives me each day to be the very best version of myself. My pursuit of being a life-long-learner continues, and the benefits of life-long-learning continue to be amazing. Nothing would bring me more joy than for all of you reading this article to embrace the perspective I’m sharing today and utilize it to improve your life and change your world.
Back to the side hustle book. I happened upon this book while searching for another at a local bookstore. I picked it up and began to look through it and found that it contained stories of how different people came to pursue a side hustle. The stories are all unique and follow different paths, but all of them end up at the destination of success landing people precisely where they set out to land. I quickly realized that this book had greater value in the thought processes the stories contained that in the actual success experienced in the stories. Again, I’m a little weird when it comes to forming perspectives, and the potential utilization of this book was no exception.
Growing up with entrepreneurial parents, I came to embrace the excitement associated with someone saying, “that’s impossible” or “you can’t do that” or “that will never work” and then attempting to prove them wrong. Having Winston Churchill motto’s “Never Give In” and “Never Never Never Give Up” helped tremendously with encouragement and inspiration. My wife and I used this as a parenting strategy. Our four sons grew up with that same entrepreneurial mindset to never stop seeking solutions and improvement in all the challenges a person faces in life. That has naturally grown to include the challenges they experience at work and the challenges our society and culture face each day. Our kitchen table discussions are lively and always finish with a healthy dose of hope and newly created intentions.
While helping others drives our family forward, the perspective I took with the 100 Side Hustles book is the lesson I’d really like to share with you today. Most people who considered the value the book could provide, would begin with the perspective that out of the 100, there’ll be one that will catch their fancy and that’s the one they’ll want to pursue. Not me. My goal in having our kids read this book is to further develop their entrepreneurial minds which can serve them well throughout their lifetime whenever they encounter challenges. It’s okay if they end up not being interested in pursuing any of the side hustles. The goal is in having them study each person’s path that led them to success, forming a new perspective of “ways to pursue” from the stories in their own personal pursuit of improved problem-solving strategies, and implementing this new perspective in all applicable areas of their life.
Can a change in your perspective really change your world? The truth is it can IMPROVE your world. The hidden gem in this article is that you have the ability to train your mind to think about things differently and to form new perspectives utilizing a wide array of resources. Those resources can be books, articles, videos, podcasts, and even conversations with both like-minded and different-minded people. As long as seeking-to-learn is at the core of your engagement, your ability to grow and develop new skill sets and new perspectives will continue the rest of your life. There is no “downside” to that. Your contribution to the world, society, and community is amplified when you continue to learn and form new perspectives.
Moving forward, be cautious with perspectives that are negative or destructive. It’s fine to disagree with any situation in the world, in our society, and in our community. You’ll find that the perspective that best supports your feelings is the one that offers potential paths forward and in a positive direction. Develop perspectives that others can be inspired by. Most people want to follow someone who “builds up” rather than an individual who tears down with no plan in place offering a path forward that serves the greater good rather than just themselves. Every person has the ability to develop side hustles in addition to who they already are. Please let me know what side hustles are working for you in life and most importantly, the WHY and HOW you were able to achieve what others said was impossible, that you couldn’t do that, or that you could never make it work. It’s the reason I believe in each and every one of YOU! GiddyUp!