Perspective Through a Kaleidoscope | Alejandro Ward | TEDxYouth@ASK

one thing that life has taught me is perspective our perspective the way we View and understand the world saves our thoughts emotions and our acttion it can determine whether we approach challenges with fear or optimism and where we view others with judgment or with empathy think about the analogy of the half glass whether it's half full or half empty do you view it as an optimist where it's half full or pessimist as half empty when we think about perspective don't think about it as viewing through a single lens instead imagine it as if you're viewing it through a kaleidoscope and for those of you who don't know and this is when I'll show my age back in the 80s and 90s before the iPads before the phones the computers MacBooks and all this great technology when I was a kid we used to have this thing called a kaleidoscope think about a pirate telescope except when you're looking through it instead of seeing what's directly in front of you you're looking through it and you see shapes and colors but then when you twist it that's when all the fun happens you see that's when the colors start shifting and evolving and that is one of the keys to life gaining A New Perspective and continuously evolving when we think about things that shape our perspective we think about our upbringing our culture our education and our personal experiences however it doesn't have to stop there in fact it begins with our upbringing our culture our education and our personal experiences but then we get to the point where that perspective has the ability to broaden okay and flourish like that first flower in Spring but I'll tell you it takes work all right it takes us being curious it takes us active listening it takes us presuming positive intent H that's a hard one presuming positive intent ensuring that that person has the best intentions it takes us traveling trying new things challenging our assumptions and of course practicing empathy now let's talk about these things when I think of curiosity I think of me and my wife's daughter alejandrita as a newborn she doesn't have any preconceived notions she can't tell me what she likes she can't tell me whether one food is better than another and she can't describe fear because she's never experienced it two parts of perspective are being curious and approaching new experiences with an open mind and a willingness to learn because just like alejandrita you'll never know what you like unless you try it now when we compare a newborn to an adolescent a newborn to a teenager a newborn to an adult all of these things have one thing in common and that is the newborn doesn't have enough life experiences to form an opinion about something therefore how could it have any preconceived assumptions or perspective on any topic you see when we open up our minds and treat our life experiences and challenges with the Curious perspective it is then we can practice is active listening when we actively listen it is at that moment that we open up ourselves to new experiences and it is at that moment we can challenge our assumptions by taking the single lens perspective out and looking at things from a broader more empathetic perspective this guy right here this has been my friend since the year 2000 this is my best friend Jon and when I think of challenging assumptions and gaining A New Perspective I think of one lesson that he taught me back in our 20s and little did he know at that moment the advice that he would give me would be instrumental to my development as an adult he said you see Al we've been friends for 10 plus years I've been with through through everything now I'm not saying this is the case however have you ever stopped to think that maybe the problem isn't them but maybe the problem is [Music] you little did he know this advice would be Monumental to my development and at this moment I didn't want to admit it but a light bulb went off he was right I I wasn't holding myself accountable I was only looking at things from my biased perspective you see we as people tend to look at things one-sided okay we look at things through our own biases when we argue or have a conflict with someone we tend to think I only want to think about how they negatively impacted me instead of looking at the whole picture and then we kind of Step into the territory where we become defensive and we listen to respond instead of listening to understand let me say that again we listen to respond instead of actually partnering with them to listen to understand and then of course there's the occasion where we insult someone or hurt somebody's feelings unintentionally and then you know we say something to the effect of well it's not my intention or I didn't do it on purpose as opposed to actually partnering with them apologizing and fixing it and then when we say something like it's not my that wasn't my intention or I didn't do it on purpose you know we shoulder shrug and expect them to get over it but as my good friend Mr billing says it's not about the intention it's about the impact so with that being said I would like to sum this up by saying this when we view the world we can only change if we challenge our assumptions and actively listen in order to be more empathetic and understand understand it the famous actor Sterling C Brown said it best empathy begins with understanding life from another person's perspective nobody and I mean nobody has an objective reality experience of reality it's all through our own individual prisms so tonight ladies and gentlemen I ask you instead of looking at the world through a single lens imagine it as if you're looking through a kaleidoscope thank you [Music]

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 184

Keywords: Culture, English, Life, TEDxTalks, [TEDxEID:54779]

Id: vBTk5qfByQg

Length: 8min 39sec (519 seconds)

Published: Wed May 22 2024