A few months ago I saw something for the very first time…
Something that had been living in plain sight for who knows how long.
I was walking down the Alameda, the main street that cuts east to west through the city of Santiago, Chile. As I passed Universidad Católica I happened to look up.
And I saw a giant statue of Christ.
Call me blind or non-observant, but I had never seen this statue before.
It’s hard to miss, no matter what direction you are walking in or what side of the road you are on. The statue is huge!
I had walked blindly passed it for 5 years.
Being a religious person, I immediately thought to myself — there is a good story here. A lesson to be taught. And then I forgot about this experience.
But early this morning it was prompted back into remembrance.
Currently I am running a cowork located in an old colonial house without central heating — and, wait for it, winter is coming. To fight the cold, we have an army of heaters sprawled throughout the cowork.
In one private office in particular, the heater had been propped up on a desk. We decided to hang it on the wall near the ceiling to free up precious work space.
This morning a couple of coworkers asked me where the heater had gone.
“I found the remote, but the heating is missing.”
“Hey, what happened to the heater?”
I told them to look up.
After looking up and seeing the heater in plain sight, many felt silly for not spotting it. How dumb they remarked.
I then remembered my experience of not seeing the statue of Christ.
Not dumb. Not silly. But something else…
Yes, there is definitely a lesson here, and not just a religious one.
Daily Blindness
We get so busy, so focused on our routines and schedules, that we often fail to see, really see, what is going on around us. Although it’s easy to pause and figuratively look up, we don’t often make the conscious effort to do so. We assume that we know what’s already there or that there is nothing to be found.
The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision. — Helen Keller
Whether it’s the physical act of raising your sight to the heavens or taking a moment to reflect on your current direction, looking up creates room to breathe, orientate and discover.
One of my favourite quotes on living a successful life is from Jim Rohn:
“Learn to get from the day. Not just get through it, get from it. Soak it up. Each day is a piece of the mosaic of your life.”
Looking up is all about getting more “from” your day. There are nuggets of gold to be discovered. You just need to make an effort to look for them.
The art of looking up
Every so often I find myself getting sucked into a daily grind that lacks meaningful and focused pauses (Netflix doesn’t count). I need these moments of respite — we all do — to evaluate how I’m doing and where I’m going.
Over the last few years I have worked hard to add the following practices to my daily and weekly routine.
- Keeping a journal
- Praying
- Meditation & breathing exercises
- Occasionally walking home instead of taking public transport
These practices help me pause and get more from each day. I get more because I better prepare for and debrief each day. I am more aware of what is going on around me and I increasingly spot new opportunities.
Most importantly, I have developed a deeper relationship with myself. I am starting to understand more intimately what makes me tick, the limiting beliefs that hold me back and where I truly want to go.
Try some of these practices this week. Stop, be conscious and look up. Look around. Look down. Look in. Just look.
