January 2, 2017

Perspective and Perception in 2017

Maintain perspective. Perceive carefully. 

That's my mantra for this year. 
Maintain the perspective of where I am versus where others are, both in the effort to cut down comparison and to realize how fortunate I am. 
Perception is tricky because things are rarely as they appear. By treading carefully in what I'm assuming (because perceive and assume are pretty much the same thing), I'm not going to be making up a story in my head. 
After all, things are rarely as they seem, right?

A lot of people have been recapping 2016; highs, lows, victories, disappointments, etc. I read a post that said something about the year having "deep heartache" but the details about the year were all good things...confusing, right? This is where perspective could come in. I don't know that person's story and maybe they are choosing to make it more tragic in title or less tragic in details; I don't actually know. 

I find it very hard to recap or judge a year if it's a deployment year, and 2016 was a deployment year. Scott left in February and came home in November. The year, therefore, exists kind of on the outside of the continuum of good/bad year. It's an outlier. 2012 was an outlier too, for this reason. They're difficult to place in the grand scheme of things.

In thinking about it, the years in my adult life go like this:
2014-ugh (I hated this year so much...I can't even give definitive reasons, but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.)

It's oddly telling, as I told Scott, that a deployment year ranks higher on the likability list than the last two years.

In the end, I know 2016 was hard on many of us for different reasons. I'd never belittle anyone's reasons for liking or disliking a year, but this is where I put on my perspective hat and zoom out a bit. While we may not all be well and good with some things that happened throughout the year, we made it through and I don't think it's "literally" been the worst year "ever". 

Do you have a word for the year? Or a mantra? Something to focus/center yourself on?

9 comments:

  1. Definitely not literally the worst year ever. Perspective is very important. It's a weird year to look back on for me--I want to focus on the good....though it's impossible to forget, and I wouldn't want to anyways, my own little heartbreak. I'm looking forward to 2017. Glad this year compared favorably to the previous two, even considering deployment!

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  2. Perspective is everything really. I know it may not always be rainbows and sunshine while you're going through it, but I for one find difficult years to be the most rewarding in the end just because you truly grow as a person. I like your mantra for the year!

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  3. Perspective is so important to have, everyone will judge a year differently. It's important to take the bad with the good and realize that it all evens out.

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  4. everyone has good and bad years but how we move on from those bad times is what counts most. fortunately, 2016 was amazing for me; i hope 2017 is even better!

    happy new year; may 2017 be amazing for you, too!

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  5. I really, really WANT to come up with a word of the year. Unfortunately, true to my nature, I have procrastinated in putting thought into this. I think I am going to ponder over it in the next week or so to see if I can come up with one! I think perspective is a great one, and it's super important!

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  6. I'm trying something new this year rather than choosing a single word I made a list of 52 words, one for each week. I'm planning to embrace one word each week and see where it takes me. Beyond that I'm going to try to remind myself that it takes little things to make big things.

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  7. Personally, 2016 was weird. Very low lows, very up ups. Professionally, it completely sucked. But I learned a lot and it's over now and I'm moving on.

    I'm not doing a word or mantra of the year. It's a ton of pressure so instead, I'm working on habit changes to achieve what I want.

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  8. I'm super weird about annual recaps or reflections. Honestly, I don't do it much as a whole year is concerned. In the last, oh, I'd say 7-8 years of my life, I'm become quite introspective and I self-reflect often, but I tend not to do so in exact set times or limits.
    I think your thoughts on perspective and perception are spot on. Knowing someone who lost a child to brain cancer at the end of 2016, sure did make me have thin skin for those whining about what a crap year it was for them. That being said, I am also a believer that personal challenges and obstacles shouldn't be compared with others.

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  9. i totally agree. i don't think 2016 was literally the worst year ever. most of my adult life, my days/months/years at their absolute worst are a million times better than a few days/months of my childhood. not trying to be dramatic, but like you said, it's all about perception. we had a car accident in 2016 and that sucked, but not as much as XYZ that happened when i was 8. etc. 2017 is shaping up to be worse than my childhood and we are only 9 days in. there's no telling until more time passes, but things are looking better. god, i hate being as vague as i am being, sorry. just perception and perspective, like you said.
    i don't do words of the year because that seems like a lot of pressure to me. a mantra is a good idea, but i am working on quarterly goals instead. and again with being vague, the thing that happened at the start of the year tipped everything else upside down and made me reevaluate my goals/life. so you know. everything is always changing.
    i hope 2017 is a good year for you though :)

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