Perspective and Presumptions-the 2 P’s which define your Experience.

And that’s why it is increasingly important to rethink your thought process.

The stale Ginger.

Last night before I slept I had the sudden epiphany that the ginger in my refrigerator was stale. I hadn’t checked its original state, I just had presumptions about it being stale. I slept with the thought that I would have to get up early and make a short trip to the local grocery store to get ginger, only then can I have Chai. (ginger being one of the most important ingredients, you see).

The next day I got up (a little late) and started preparing tea. I took the ginger out of the refrigerator, sliced it and incorporated it in the tea. I had it strongly in my head that the ginger has gone bad but I used it anyhow. The Chai was ready but I was still stuck with the thought that the Chai will not be as good as the regular one with normal ginger. I didn’t enjoy it as much that morning. And my day sucked on me.

When I asked my partner whether he found the Chai to be a little “off”, he claimed that it was quite a regular one. He did not feel anything amiss. It was normal, he said, just like everyday. When he checked the ginger, it was just as normal.

My presumptions about the stale ginger stopped me from having a normal morning tea. Only then I realized that I had stored presumptions about the ginger in my mind. And that the most negligible day-to-day mini-experiences lead to a plethora of realizations.

The new city.

A few years ago, I moved to another city for my first job ever. It was my first “moving-out-from-my-parents-house” too. It’s differently crazy if you have dwelt in your comfort zone for 99.99% of the times. The comfort zone feeds you with the thought that you will be staying in your comfort zone henceforth. This thought forms a thick veil blocking you from the amazing scenes beyond it.

I was mature and intelligent enough to keep a very good and positive outlook and perspective about the city I was about to enter, live and eat in for the next few years. I lived each and every moment being grateful for the copious amount of positive chances that life offered me with. It really helped me(so much). I ended up having great experiences, some of the best people whom now I call my second family. There were hurdles (of course) but my perspective made it easy for me to have solutions in sight too. And that made life easy.

Perspective

It is simply the angle with which you look at things. A circle has 360 degrees. Having a fixed perspective means looking at the center of the circle with only a few degrees and considering that you have a full view of things. The definition of perspective is very subjective and hence perspective is subjective too. It is not about a right or a wrong perspective.

Presumption

It is the sum total of all the ideas and thoughts which are thrown on you by the people you take inspiration from. It is an idea that is taken to be true, and often used as the basis for other ideas, although it is not known for certain.

The necessary shift in your perspective.

When you are about to experience something different from your regular life, be sure to accept the differences, may it be food, people, qualities, weather, and so forth.

A tiniest example — You cannot expect Italian food to be as spicy as Indian curries. Why? Because it is different, unique to a specific demography. Rather you have to enter the zone of acceptance that Italian food doesn’t have to be like Indian food but just as tasty in many different ways. (visualizing the creamy chicken cilantro ravioli I had 20 hours back). You can never enjoy any other cuisine if you expect everything to have the same taste that you are used to.

Having a positive outlook give you a cocktail of different and jolly experiences. Collecting experiences > Collecting things. You complain less when you are open to experiences because you lead an open ended life. It’s about time we embrace the differences and start having positive presumptions about everything in the grander scheme of things.

It has no side effects by the way!