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None of us live in an objective world, but instead in a subjective world that we ourselves have given meaning to. The world you see is different from the one I see, and it's impossible to share your world with anyone else.

We are not actors in any larger-than-life drama. Life has no script, no playwright, no director, no producer - and no meaning. To the best of our scientific understanding, the universe is a blind and purposeless process, full of sound and fury but signifying nothing. During our infinitesimally brief stay on our tiny speck of a planet, we fret and strut this way and that, and then are heard of no more.

Imagine the People in Your Life as Tiny Infants and as One-Hundred-Year-Old Adults

Remember, One Hundred Years from Now, All New People My good friend Patti recently shared this bit of wisdom with me that she learned from one of her favorite authors. It has added a great deal of perspective to my life. In the scheme of things, one hundred years isn't all that long a time. However, one thing's for sure: A hundred years from now we will all be gone from this planet. And when kept in mind, this idea can fill us with needed perspective during times of perceived crisis or stress.

When you see someone doing something that doesn't make sense to you, ask yourself what the world would have to look like to you for those actions to make sense.

When someone acts in a way that seems strange to you, rather than reacting in your usual way, such as, "I can't believe they would do that," instead say something to yourself like "I see, that must be the way she sees things in her world. Very interesting."

When I coach people who seem to be getting caught up in 'sweating the small stuff', I often ask them to explore the question 'Will this matter tomorrow, next week or in a year's time?' Thinking about the issues right in front of you like this can help you regain your perspective.

The more aware we are of our basic paradigms, maps, or assumptions, and the extent to which we have been influenced by our experience, the more we can take responsibility for those paradigms, examine them, test them against reality, listen to others and be open to their perceptions, thereby getting a larger picture and a far more objective view.

"There's a world out there, Tara," he said. "And it will look a lot different once Dad is no longer whispering his view of it in your ear."

We take a handful of sand from the endless landscape of awareness around us and call that handful of sand the world.

Actively seek out other perspectives by including the Devil's advocate position and bypassing the filter bubble. Consider the adage "You are what you eat." You need to take in a variety of foods to be a healthy person. Likewise, taking in a variety of perspectives will help you become a super thinker.

Happily, there is another way to relate to life--a softer, more graceful path that makes life seem easier and the people in it more compatible. This "other way" of living involves replacing old habits of "reaction" with new habits of perspective. These new habits enable us to have richer, more satisfying lives.

We shall not cease from exploration And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time.