A new lens on life.

It’s a bit cliché for a photographer to lead with a metaphor about camera gear. But on a day like 1-1-11 at about 11 in the morning, my interest is to focus on a different word in my title. The word new.

If a lens is little more than the medium through which we see our world, then our lens on life opens up and closes down what’s in frame. In photography, a wide angle lens gives us breadth. A fast lens can give us shallow depth. In the same way, I have come to pay attention lately to how limiting my default lenses are on how I see reality. Meaning, when I’m not aware of the means through which I’m interpreting the circumstances of my life, I can come to the belief that the world IS as I see it. When in fact, the world I see has more to do with the lens through which I’m viewing than what’s possible in the richer world around me.

My friend Scott Bourne has been hammering me on this idea for about a year and a half straight. This didn’t come from a workshop or a platform presentation. This just came from a friend noticing how my interpretations of the world were limiting what I could do in it. And, that friend cared enough to share what he was seeing. I wonder if you might be committed enough to change, especially on a day like today, to start by asking a friend (or an enemy) what you might not be seeing. Don’t get mad if they tell you the truth.

Then, and this is key, you and I get to do something about what we hear. It wasn’t enough for Scott, in all his wisdom, to share his take. First of all, he could have been wrong. Second, hearing and doing something about what you hear are two totally different things.

It was on me, just like it would be on you, to be willing to change the lens. To actively take off how I was seeing things and put on something NEW in it’s place.

On a day of firsts and one’s, what if you and I dared to do something a little less predictable than take on a resolution to get better, faster, slimmer or more proficient and do something new instead? Don’t just gesture toward getting better, quicker and stronger. If you want transformation, trade in better for new and commit radically to make that happen.

Imagine what it would look like if, right now, if you were courageous enough to consciously take on a new perspective. In your mind’s eye, picture taking off your biases about how you are interpreting the circumstances of your world and consider them from another angle. Isn’t that what professional creative’s are supposed to do anyway? Describe what new things you see from that new point of view.

Maybe you have an issue with someone. I wonder what it’s like, honestly, from their vantage point. Take off your biases and try on theirs. Or, maybe you have decided that the economy, our industry, your skill level IS or is NOT “_________”. Why not change what you put in that blank. Put whatever you want in it. The crazier the better! What if that new thing were true or at least on the way to becoming true? Can you see how the re-new-ing of your mind might open something up?

I say if you and I keep that habit in 2011, we won’t need thin resolutions. Our resolve will come from a deeper place that can actually yield results.