I can’t believe I waited 40 minutes!

I can’t believe I had to wait 40 minutes!

I can’t believe I only waited 40 minutes! Whee!

Two similar sentences, two very different feelings behind them. And today I could have easily felt either one of them.

As I write this, it’s the day before Thanksgiving. I’m at Whole Foods waiting to pick up food I ordered (perhaps you can see where this is going). The line snakes away from the pick-up desk and down through the produce department, ending right before the juice bar. If you didn’t know better, you’d think they were handing out free iPhones. Am I stressed out, fuming about the wait and muttering my favorite swear words? Nope, not at all. I’m having the exact experience I expected because I chose my perspective (and treated myself to a latte).

Switching perspectives is a trick I use with my clients all of the time, with great results. For instance, a client may start off a session saying how frustrated he is that he doesn’t have more clients. We explore that and give it a name, like “scarcity”. Then we play around with other perspectives. Each one is like looking at the topic through different eyeglasses. Changing those lenses opens up the ability to think differently and come up with new solutions. Without fail, the client leaves with a new way of thinking and some other things to try.

Getting back to this morning: I knew it would be a madhouse. I prepared myself ahead of time to wait, so I knew I had a good perspective, But if I was surprised and stressed by the huge line, I would have actively shifted myself by asking “What’s great about this situation?” My answers would be: Whole Foods is going to hand me a bunch of delicious food that someone else prepared just for me. There’s that lovely holiday anticipation feeling in the air. It’s fun to hear other people chatter about their Thanksgiving plans.

Oh, and I wrote most of this while standing in line, sipping my latte. #winning

Things not going the way you like? Shifting your perspective may be exactly what you need to craft a new approach and get the results you want. This isn’t always easy to do alone, so reach out to me if you could use a little coaching help.