One Apple A Day #679 - practice detachment
"The only difference between stumbling blocks and stepping stones is the way in which we use them." – Adriana Doyle
Yesterday I had an enlighting conversation with my dear friend Umberto. We were talking about how tough times can be unique sources of learning and growth, or heavy stones dragging us down.
It is up to us to decide what to do with our pitfalls.
I was also sharing how things that I experienced as massive failures when they happened years ago are now events that I cherish as part of my growth.
Yet, to put failures and tough times in the right perspective when you're living them, it's definitely hard.
As usual, Umberto shared a fascinating metaphor to explain this.
"It's a matter of volume occupied. The more space something takes within your life, the heavier you perceive it. When you widen your space, that same thing becomes smaller and smaller, until it's almost irrelevant."
Quite obvious, no? If you put any object right in front of your face, it looks huge, but as soon as you put some space between you and the object, it becomes smaller until it almost disappears.
But how do you do that? It looks like time would be the only thing needed to gain a wider perspective on things. However, it's not. How many people do you know who are still chained to their past failures and can't see beyond them?
I believe the key is to practice the art of detachment. Your not your failures, and you're not your successes. Only when you learn to detach from the outcome of what you do, you can walk away from it. And gain the perspective needed to transform failures in learning.