On a recent weekend I had an incredible time, during my time living in the Netherlands I was on a trip with some friends where we went to Germany and stayed at another friend's house, I was delighted because it was my first time being there country, and I also got to see snow for the first time.
So how does this relate to today's entry?
I wanted to start with this for two reasons, the first is that I had an amazing time :), and the second is that it made me think about the importance of perspective. During my recent adventure in Europe I was able to see many places I had never seen, do many things I had never done, and eat many types of foods I had never tried.
This whole experience made me realize how our cultural background and experience shapes our perspective. If your whole life you have always lived in the same place, eaten the same foods, and lived the same way, you only know one way to do things and you don't know if you could do them differently.
I could understand this in many aspects, even in the professional aspect. Even before graduating from university I was working as a software engineer in the same company and continued doing so for almost 3 years, after I got another job in a different company I was finally able to understand why some procedures were done the way they were done. , and I was also able to compare the pros and cons of each organization, and with that understanding I was able to do something incredible and very important, I was able to choose .
In another aspect, in my adventure in the Netherlands I was also able to experience different ways of living, I experienced another climate (Mexico's is much better :p), another culture, food and another environment just to mention a few aspects. This understanding gave me the clarity to:
- Compare the different aspects of the two places
- Choose which elements I like the most
- Direct my life in the direction I want to take it
And I gained this understanding just by comparing two different options, imagine the results you can have when you experiment and compare more and more diverse options. You start getting exponential results.
Being able to understand new perspectives and choose for yourself is one of the most empowering acts you can do in your life, and one of the most powerful ways to gain more perspective is to experience new things for yourself, the ways I think of right now. It's through traveling or talking to lots of different people, but if you have more ideas we can discuss them.
For example, traveling opens up the world to you in the following ways:
- You get to know new cultures: You can experience new ways of life, traditions and customs, which gives you a new perspective on life and the world in general.
- You get to know different landscapes and climates: You can get to know yourself more when you experience the different climates of the world and thus you can decide which one you like the most.
- You learn about the history of a country: Beyond learning about the history of a country by living and getting to know it, you begin to understand why its culture developed that way, since both on a personal level and at a societal level, the environment has a lot of influence in the development. This will help you develop a holistic understanding of life.
- You meet new people: By meeting people with a very different upbringing than yours, you expose yourself to new ideas that perhaps you would not have been able to come up with on your own.
Understanding new perspectives is also the way you grow as a human being. Not only does your knowledge and experience grow, but even your empathy grows, since when you really understand that your way of living or your culture is not the only one that exists, you begin to appreciate much more the differences that exist in humanity and value diversity. , this is something that I personally believe that you cannot understand intellectually, it can only be obtained with direct experience.
Therefore, I invite you to consciously seek to expose yourself to new experiences and make it a priority in your life to understand more and more perspectives.