Do You Have the Right Perspective??

Show Notes:
Do you have the right perspective? The reason I ask you this question is to challenge you to really think about the answer. Do you believe the perspective you own for each experience & situation that comes up is the right one?

Of course, everyone will probably believe they have the right perspective because it’s THEIR perspective. Most of the time we are all very biased toward what we know, what we’ve experienced, and what we believe to be true. 

Have you ever thought about how you may be hesitant to see a situation or a person from an alternative perspective because it means the reason or outcome of the situation no longer falls in your favor? You don’t want to admit you’re wrong. You don’t want to put the effort in to see how your actions might have affected someone else in a way you didn’t consider prior to taking action. You don’t want to be uncomfortable and seeing it from another view usually causes us to step outside of our comfort zones.

And why is it important to determine if your perspective is right or not? That’s what we are going to get into today.

I’m also going to share the importance of aligning your perspective with God’s truth and will.

1. The Right Perspective for Problem Solving
   1. Proverbs 3:5-6, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.”
   2. When we broaden our perspective, we are able to see other options & possibilities for how to solve our problems.
2. The Right Perspective for Resilience
   1. Philippians 4:8, “And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.”
   2. Having the ability to bounce back from setbacks and struggles is a top skill. And we can adopt this mindset & skill a lot easier when we allow ourselves to be in the right perspective.
3. The Right Perspective for Being More Flexible & Adaptable
   1. Proverbs 16:3, “Commit your actions to the Lord, and your plans will succeed.”
   2. Often times we need to go with the flow, but we struggle with this because we are so set in our ways.
4. The Right Perspective for Improving Gratitude
   1. When this perspective is on point, we encourage gratitude in ourselves. We don’t allow all the hard things to blind us from all the fantastic things that often outweigh the hard things.
5. The Right Perspective for Personal Growth & Self-Improvement
   1. Romans 12:2, “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”
   2. The right perspective will allow you to see where you’re flourishing and where you need to put the work in. Shifting your perspective will give you more truth about what’s truly going on in your life, thereby identifying what needs to change.

Transcript

0:03

This is the Real Positive Girl podcast and I am your host Sabrina. And we are here talking about your mental health struggles. Uh, how to take those first few steps towards becoming more vulnerable, more honest, and more self-aware so that you are able to understand yourself better. And we do that two times a week here. So if you are new, welcome in to talking about mental health mindset, all of the things that we can use to become our best selves every single day. And we do have, um, often scriptures from the Bible along with that to help us. If you also are in a Christian Christ-like life, walk in like I am right now. Um, if you are not new, welcome back to the party. You know what to expect. Today we're gonna chat about do you have the right perspective? Do you have the right perspective? I literally just came up with this idea while I was driving. Was I driving? Yes. And I was just like, oh, you know what? Praise the Lord because it's nice when I'm just like given and blessed with an idea, but also with an idea that I believe wholly in my heart that will be fully embraced and understood and helpful to you guys. And that's the whole point. But before we like really dive into that topic, I do want to invite you to take a little peek down the show notes below where you'll be able to see where you can follow me on Instagram or TikTok. I am at Sabrina Joy Pero. Again, if you pop into the show notes, you're able to find out how that's spelt and any other details, you know, to get ahold of me on socials and become friends and tell me all your favorite things and just really build that community online. So take a look at that. Also, there is a link to the YouTube channel for the podcast where you two watched some of the older episodes from earlier this year and a little bit before that so that you have like a video version if you're into that, if you're into seeing the facial expressions and the things. And just so you know, if you're watching those, like the quality slowly, <laugh> gets better over time. So, you know, hang in there if that's like your thing, but it's super dark and moody. It gets better. Uh, other things down there, you can sign up for like weekly newsletter you can sign up for or you can suggest a topic you can do, um, anonymous venting. There's all kinds of things. Uh, you could check out the journal that I created that you can buy on Amazon or my website, all the things. So check it out, take a peek. But let's go ahead and really just jump into what we are here to talk about, which again is, do you have the right perspective? So I grew up with a bit of like a victim mindset, which I have mentioned multiple times because I like to be very vulnerable and honest with you guys. So I woke, I bro, I I woke up, I grew up <laugh> while growing up, woke up uh, with a victim mindset. And you know, this really meant that my perspective was more limited and bias in nature because like most of the things that I thought about really had to do with me, right? Because when you were have a, when you adopt and live within a victim mindset, a lot of things always come back to you and like how things affected you and why your life is the way it is and how you didn't have this that, or like whatever it is or how you feel like you did your best, but no one's appreciating it or no one's recognizing that or it nothing could possibly be fully your fault. And it's a pretty nasty mindset and behavior to live your life in. But often a lot of us do, including myself. And you know, it's a natural response to someone trying to survive trauma to act this way. Uh, but it's still not something that you want to make excuses for being for too long, right? You don't wanna continue in this and use that as your like, quote unquote reason, which is really an excuse that you've gone through so much trauma. This is the way that you act. It's, it's more of like reflective for me of like that the reason that I acted in such a victim mindset is because I was going through so much trauma and it's not really, it's not even like a reason or like an excuse, it's just more of like that is what's happening. And I wish that I had the ability then to be more conscious and understanding of how I was feeling, who I could go to, all of these things, right? And so, you know, when we have the opportunity to like grow out of that type of like mindset and behavior of like being a victim and being selfish and always thinking about ourselves and not, you know, a different way to look at it, a different perspective, uh, we need to do it. We know that we can just like step out of that and be like, okay, I don't, I no longer need to have a victim mindset cuz it's not gonna benefit me. And luckily for me I was able to do that after I moved away from like the biggest influences that did, you know, uh, relate to my trauma. And I kind of just got like a fresh start. It was like when I went to college I was like, here we go, <laugh> fresh start, let's start again. Let's figure this life out. Let's get better. And you know, I share this with you obviously always to never like get any sort of, uh, anyone to feel bad or anything like that or any attention. No, it's more of like a shared to help anyone who else might be struggling with shame and or guilt about like having that type of mindset and engaging in that type of behavior, whether it was in the past or maybe it's current and you know that you need to be shifting away from it. You know that it's not the healthiest way for you to live your life. And I want you to know that if you don't want your life to reflect that like victim mindset behavior, you don't have to anymore. You can kind of step away from it. There's never a time where it's too late or you are not prepared enough or like whatever it is, you can make the conscious decision and then slowly take actions to remove yourself from that like mindset, that behavior, things that you know, you no longer want to engage in. So it's just a reminder to not get caught up in the lifestyle, um, in the feelings that hold you back from changing that lifestyle, from changing that mindset, from changing that behavior. And you know, we often allow these feelings to hold us hostage. We often allow these feelings to dictate what we can or can't do, these feelings of shame and guilt and that we are less than when and like use everything that we have done that isn't the best, that isn't positive, that isn't helpful against ourselves and say that we can't do all of these growth things in our life, which we can. We just have to, you know, take the steps to do that. We have to acknowledge the need for us to change cuz we're realizing it, whether it's other people helping us realize it or is ourselves just be understanding that it needs to happen and then start taking action on that desired growth and move forward it. Whether those are really big steps or small steps or medium size, I would say try to create some sort of plan. Take small steps so you don't get overwhelmed or feel like you will um, fall back into old behavior too often. We all do that but we can be, uh, ahead of the game on that if we allow ourselves to move slow within our actions to become our best selves. So just let it go what happened in the past and move forward. That's just really what we need to do. So let me ask you in terms of what we're gonna talk about today, do you have the right perspective? Do you have the right perspective? You know, the reason that I ask you this question is to challenge you to really think about the answer. Like truly take a moment, be honest with yourself and ask yourself this question, do you believe the perspective that you own for each experience and situation that comes up is the right one? Do you truly believe that? Like be honest with yourself because if you're being honest, you might say no or you might say most of the time or you might say sometimes, but really deliver yourself a full true answer cuz there's no reason for you to lie to yourself, especially if you're not gonna tell anyone else the answer. Just be honest with yourself because you cannot establish any lasting change if you don't start with being honest with what needs to change and what's not working out. Okay? So you know, really ask yourself, do you believe that you have the right perspective? And again, maybe not every single time, maybe most of the time or at least lately that you have been. So what do you think? I want you to really ask yourself, take a moment, push pause. Do you think you have the right perspective? And of course, you know, it's common like if you look up any sort of like articles or information online about, you know, gaining the right perspective, often everyone believe they have the right perspective because it's their perspective. It's just like they believe that what they're seeing and believing and thinking is correct and right in the best way to go about it. Um, and you know, most of the time though we are all very biased, like very biased towards like what we know, what we have personally experienced and what we believe to be true. And that last one can sometimes be like a total bummer because you know, we can definitely believe things that are not true. We can definitely believe lies, we can definitely believe information that was given to us in total trust, but then we find out that we should not have trusted that person because it was lies they sat on a throne of lies. So it's really important for us to consider, wow, like is everything that I believe or the way that I see the world based upon my own things and are there no outside influences helping me with my perspective to see things another way? Because often, you know, regardless of what we believe and where we believe it comes from, we think our perspective is good enough because it's difficult to admit when we struggle with like a fixed mindset, which if you're unaware there's like a fixed mindset and a growth mindset and often a fixed mindset believes that if things don't come naturally or easily to someone that they can't uh, achieve anything from that. So in that growth mindset believes that you can continually work on stuff and get better. I think. So a classic example is that if you, you know, start to try to do algebra and it doesn't naturally or easily come to you to understand the steps of doing like, um, problems like algebraic problems and and all those kind of things, then you just believe that you can't do that kind of math and you just wanna like, you know, give up and then just move on. And you know, often with perspectives we can get caught in a fixed mindset of thinking that only our perspective is the one that we can see through or the one that we were told to see through versus like having a growth mindset where it's like, oh we can actually be open to multiple perspectives of the same thing. Um, but yeah, often we just, we struggle to admit when we are having struggles, when we are dealing with a fixed mindset where it's hard for us to see from somebody else's viewpoint and we might lack the ability to see things from any other view because of our bias of the way that those people live their lives. You know? And it may be even jealousy and envy of what they have. And so we just want to be whatever is opposite of them because we have this jealousy and envy that is really um, kind of like blocking out any rational thought, like those kind of things. And so that's why I really want you to ask yourself, again, coming back to asking yourself, do you have the right perspective? Have you really asked yourself these questions? Is it only based on things that you know and you've experienced? Uh, as opposed to, you know, being more open-minded and having the opportunity to ask people what they think and, and come from it like from like the devil's advocate kind of thing where a lot of people do that come from arguments on the other side and really practice the skill of doing that. Cause I do truly believe that having a wider perspective, a more flexible, broader <laugh> perspective from things is a skill. Um, so you know, just, just kind of think about that. And another question would be like, have you ever thought about how you may be hesitant to see a situation or a person from an alternative perspective? Because here listen up. Listen up because it means that the reason or the outcome of the situation no longer falls in your favor, right? You, like you, you will see that what maybe what you did from the other person's perspective actually wasn't that great and you're like, crap, if I admit that, then that means that I actually am in the wrong when I'm over here trying to defend myself of being in the right or being neutral. You know? So ask yourself if you are hesitant to admit, uh, to see things from another perspective because you know that you might have to admit that you're wrong, but you don't wanna admit that you're wrong. Like no one ever really wants to, right? And you don't wanna put the effort in to see how your actions might have affected someone in a way that you didn't consider prior to taking that action or prior to saying whatever it was, right? You don't wanna be uncomfortable. And often seeing it from someone else's viewpoint, someone else's perspective will force us to step outside of our comfort zones and be uncomfortable and be vulnerable and be just out there <laugh> exposed to, oh my gosh, this might be my fault, this might be my problem. And you know, it's it, you might be thinking about this and you're like, yeah Sabrina, you know, you're kind of pointing to the fact that having the right perspective is important. Having the right perspective can help us to see it from different angles. That's great. But what's the point? The point is, is that it's important to determine if your perspective is right or not because there are really important reasons and things that we engage in in life that help us have the best life that we can have by having a wider perspective. And we are gonna get into that shortly. It's just I am here to explain the importance of having the right perspective, having a wider perspective. Um, but before we jump into that, I also wanna note that I am also going to share the importance of aligning your perspective with God's truth and will. So, you know, as Christians we do need to focus on the external, like the external, excuse me, the eternal values and not like the temporary circumstances or issues or situations that happen to us because we're gonna go through a myriad of different problems and situations and things that we're going to experience, but God's truth and will never change. They're just like, like there, there are these things that he's always gonna deliver and have for us where all of our circumstances and situations are going to change. And so those things actually won't matter in the long run. And when we put our full trust in God, it doesn't even matter what those circumstances and experience is. Those experiences is, it doesn't really matter what those circumstances and out to be. Um, because he can help us like through anything and everything and he as in God, he can help us through anything and everything. So our perspective for life and for the people that we have in our lives needs to be based on what Christ did and how he taught others to live their life while he was here on earth. Again, like I always talk about Christ-like behavior. So let's get into the reasons why we should be evaluating whether or not we have the right perspective for what's going on in our lives. But again, but first I have to let you know my disclaimer as I do at the, the support in the show every single time. So here's my quick disclaimer, the tips and advice I'm about to give you is all based on my own knowledge research, the experience of others in my personal experience that um, I am able to share like the experiences of others that I'm able to share in my own. And you know, if you find that what I have already shared so far about like determining whether your perspective is the right one and what I'm going to share in like the reasons why it's important to have the right perspective just don't align with you, I do encourage you to find a counselor or a therapist and have that one-on-one opportunity to figure out what does best align with you Figuring out like if you have the right perspective to become your best self and live in your best life if you don't wanna do that. I do always, always, always encourage everyone to go to our best friend Google, I feel like it's like a millennials best friend and just type in some keywords like best perspective or how to be open-minded and podcasts and videos and articles and blogs and social media posts and all the things that will help you maybe get more aligned with what you believe would be best in regards to figuring out the life. Okay, so let's get into why it's important to evaluate whether we have the right perspective or not. And I have five uh, examples for you that will help you kind of like know the important reasons why having the right perspective is helpful every single day. So the first one, the first one is the right perspective for problem solving. It's important to have the right perspective for problem like whether the problem is really big, small or medium size, we are constantly solving problems. And maybe there does go a day by that we are not solving problems, but sometimes we are already like thinking of problems that may happen and then kind of like pre solving them. So when we, it's important to have this the correct perspective for problem solving. In the book of Proverbs chapter three, verses five through six, it says, trust in the Lord with all your heart. Do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do and he will show you which path to take. Often with problem solving, people will dive into anxiety, into worry, into this like crazy uncertainty where they fear already if they aren't able to solve the problem or they don't have a lot of experience or skills, problem solving in general be for whatever reason they believe that it's like all gonna fall apart. Like the worst case scenario is gonna happen and they're worried about how it's going to turn out. However, just as I read to you in Proverbs, if we are able to distrust the Lord with all of our heart, and I think it's important to note that it's not just trusting him, just generally it's like with your whole heart, like you're full in, then you don't really have to worry about like your own thoughts and like what, like your own understanding like what you think should happen, how you think it should work out. You just need to seek God and like believe that he, his will and his way are the perfect way and he will tell you what to do and where to go. And sometimes those will be really hard paths, paths to navigate and other times it'll be a little bit easier to navigate. But he will help you to be open-minded and broaden your perspective so that you're able to see other options and possibilities for how to solve your problem. Cuz that's really important when you have the right perspective for problem solving. You are more open-minded, you have to allow yourself to have more creative freedom and yes I did say allow you have to allow yourself to have more creative freedom to come up with different problem solving solutions and resolutions that maybe you previously would never have considered or have ever thought of that actually will work really well for this experience. And cuz we don't really need to use only the knowledge uh, of what we know now and what we have used in the past, it doesn't always have to be just those things. Which is another example of a fixed mindset where you believe you can only use what you have right now outside of like actually pushing yourself to learn things which is not like, you know, besties, like learning new things and a fixed mindset, those are not besties. So it is important that we do make an effort to like find new resolutions and ways to approach and handle a problem that will also promote personal growth and flexibility in what you can move through and how you can actually deal with struggles a lot quicker than you normally would because you're allowing your mindset and your perspective to be more broad in the problem that you're solving. So hopefully that makes sense. It's important to have the right perspective when you need to problem solve, which is more often than not on the regular. The second one that I wanna share with you is the right perspective for resilience, the right perspective for resilience. So when we think of resilience, we think of being able to bounce back. We think of being able to not be completely like shut down depending on the problem, the struggle, the situation, whatever you're going through, you are not gonna just let it run you over like a Mac truck and then be done and give up. You're going to bounce back, you're gonna jump back up and you're gonna get back to it in the book of Philippians chapter four verse eight. It says in now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right and pure and lovely and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. I chose this verse to go along with talking about having the right perspective for resilience because it's important for us to, when we want to bounce back and like continue to push through all of the struggle and the wave of problems and crippling fear and anxiety and all these things that are trying to come at us, if we're able to really think about all these lovely, amazing, honest, excellent things that are happening in our life, the wonderful beautiful relationship that we might have with God and how we are so determined to live our life like a Christ and how we are so blessed in so many things in our life, if we are more apt to focus on those things and allow those things to continue to drive our focus and our strength and our ability to keep going despite being knocked down so many times, then we will have a better perspective for being resilient. You know, having the ability to bounce back from setbacks and struggles is like a top skill. Again, I feel like a lot of these things are skills that all we need to do is spend some time actually developing and then we will be good is gold. Like it'll be great and we can adopt this mindset and skill a lot easier when we allow ourselves to be in the right perspective. And again, we do have to allow ourselves to do these things because often we'll close ourselves up in like a, like a little broom closet and say this is it, this, this, this is it. Like this is the little area that's done again with the fixed mindset. So we have to allow ourselves to be like, oh no, there are so many other choices and opportunities and possibilities here. So we have to allow ourselves to, you know, adopt the mindset of being resilient and bouncing back so that we will have a better perspective of oh it's gonna be okay, we can keep going. You know, and when we only focus on our problems and like what was and currently is like holding us back and not allowing us to achieve our goals and continue those steps to hit all of our milestones, um, there is not an opportunity to bounce back when we're just like, oh my gosh, problem, problem, problem, problem, problem. And that is where our focus is. We are not gonna be able to bounce back or be resilient or really be anything except for so fixated on our problems and we're gonna stay stagnant. We might even like trickle backwards and that's not gonna really gonna help you become your best self every single day. That's not gonna help you sh be a light in the world as God has called us to be like, it's just not going to work, it's not going to help. Right? So the more that we focus on the problem without a solution, without like even even a possible solution, even if later in hindsight you realize that that actually wasn't a good solution, uh, that you, that you went with, you know, the more that we focus on the problem without any sort of solution, the longer that we hold ourselves captive to our problem and don't allow ourselves to move forward and kind of like figure things out cuz maybe you have to go through multiple resolutions and, and uh, problem solving solutions for you to realize how you can pull yourself back up and try again. And that's okay. It's not just like a one and done kind of thing, you get multiple tries. So having the right perspective for being resilient for bouncing back is so important because it allows us not to get stuck in our pit of despair. Number three is the right perspective for being more flexible and adaptable the right perspective for being more flexible and adaptable. In the book of Proverbs it says, uh, chapter 16 verse three. It says Commit your actions to the Lord and your plans will succeed. Commit your actions to the Lord and your plans will succeed. So oftentimes we need to go with the flow, we just have to like be flexible in whatever's happening, but we struggle with this because we are so set in the way that we see things and how we think it should turn out. And don't consider how much easier<laugh> it would like dealing with the changes in our life would be if we would just see it from a different perspective. And I think that on deck we should normally have at least two or three perspectives that we see things through, that we see things through. And we could also like one of those things could be like someone that you trust and you like tell them what's going on and you ask them what their opinion is and how they see it. And then you always wanna see it in the reverse. Like if you've hurt someone or if there's been some sort of experience, you wanna try to see it from their perspective, you wanna try to see it from an outsider's perspective. You wanna see it from a perspective where you choose a resolution that you wouldn't normally choose and how that would work out. Just like really as broad 360 action as you can with figuring out what the best, uh, perspective would be, especially with being more flexible and adaptable, which again needs to be like a skill that we all adopt because life is changing all the time and a lot of people hate change and there's so much worry and anxiety and anger associated and depression with change that if we all just decided to be more flexible and adaptable in a more of a growth mindset, life would actually feel a lot less burdensome and a little bit more enjoyable. And like I said, there could be a lot of fear in the mix too with changes in our life of things not going the way we want it or the way we planned or even the way we were promised, right? But we have to allow ourselves to be flexible and adaptable to what happens, uh, next to us, to still succeed, to still move forward, to still be able to hit those goals. Otherwise we will continue to hold ourselves back and negate any possible growth. And we don't wanna be negating any possible growth. We wanna be moving towards growth and becoming our best selves. And so we need to be more flexible and adaptable. And again, when I was talking about how there's fear involved in allowing change to kinda like take us along and dictate our lives, uh, that's why I was chosen to speak on that verse from Proverbs chapter 16 verse three where it's talking about committing your actions to the Lord and your plans will succeed. Because if you were so worried about like this change and these new things that roll into your life, just commit all of your actions and your thoughts and everything that's all about this change to God and he and your plans will succeed. Like he your plan to like accept what's happening, your plan to, you know, not always need to understand why change comes and why things just feel so forceful and so like all of a sudden and allow you just to adapt. And so if your plan to succeed, if you want to, is to be flexible and be more adaptable, ask God and commit that to him and he will help you. So just kind of consider that it's, it's not always fun to go with the flow because you feel like you're like, why didn't it happen the way I wanted to? But maybe it's not supposed to happen that way or it will just more down the line. Number four is the right perspective for improving gr gratitude growth. That's the next one,<laugh> right perspective for improving gratitude. So I know that I talk a, I try to talk a lot about gratitude cuz it's really important but I know that a lot of people don't talk about it because they feel like it's cheesy or it's unnecessary or like really sharing out loud the things that you are grateful for is un is like not going to help. And actually it really does. The more often that you do it, the more that it's top of mind and it's something that you can grasp onto when you feel like your whole world is like just crumbling when you feel like everything around you is on fire. If you're able to just go back to the things that actually you like fill you with gratitude and thankfulness and that you're happy about and just you know, cause your heart to swell, you're again less likely to focus on your problems and allow your problems and any other repercussions that came from those things to dictate your next steps and how you think about things and how you treat other people and how you treat yourself. And it's important that we don't go with the flow of allowing all the negativity and the problems and struggles to, you know, take charge and run the show because then we'll just like run ourselves into the ground and that will be it. We need to have those things that we can feel grateful for. We need to be grateful for more things as God has blessed us so much with so many things that I feel like a lot of us don't take the time to acknowledge and thank him for, which we need to be more in the habit of doing. So I'm even talking to myself in this and I think that if you are gonna start some sort of like gratitude habit every single day, I would suggest doing at least four things, like listing four things every single day. And because three feels a little easy, five is like a lot, four is a great number. That's always the number that I suggest and make sure that it's like really big things, small things, medium size things. A good example of a big thing would be like you're grateful for money in the bank and a roof over your head. A uh, a medium sized thing would be really grateful for snuggling with your cat or hanging out or playing a very specific game with your family or with your kiddos. A really small thing would be going and getting like your favorite cup of coffee and you're grateful that you know your favorite barista was there or they made the drink really really good this time or you know, uh, they had your favorite breakfast sandwich and they never do and you're super grateful for that. You're super grateful that someone decided to run ahead of you and hold the door open for you cuz they saw that your arms were full of things as you're going into whatever building. So when you do take up a gratitude practice, just make sure that you are mixing it up. It doesn't always need to be these huge things that just sometimes feel overwhelming and also don't really hit home as much as being grateful for having an extra 30 minutes to take your dog on a walk cuz you really like to get outside and get some vitamin D in the sun. So the right perspective for enjoying gratitude is allowing ourself to see past just our problems. And when we allow ourselves to recognize and enjoy the positives in our life, we are more likely to cultivate joy and fulfillment in our life, especially if we're doing it on the daily. And it's something that we will lean into when we're having hard times to help us go back to the last one, be more resilient and be able to solve our problems better. Okay, number five. And the last one that I have to share with you is the right perspective for personal growth and self-improvement, the right perspective for personal growth and self-improvement. And the book of Romans, which is probably my favorite book. Uh, one of them, I don't know, Paul just says so many amazing things, the writer of Romans, so many amazing things in that book that I'm just like, oh so helpful. But in the book of Romans chapter 12 verse two, it says Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think, then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. So I love that verse because it's a such a great reminder that as a Christ follower you need to make sure that you are not just copying what everyone else in the world is doing. You are not here to live your life like them. You're not here to be jealous or envious of what they're doing and where they're going. And that's like a reminder directly to me because it doesn't matter like what they're doing, it doesn't matter where they're going, it doesn't matter that they're making more money than you or they're having more success or they have the dream life that you think that you want but you don't know what's behind all the closed doors like you think you do because people say that they share their whole entire life on socials. And even I talk about how I'm super vulnerable and I'm going through. There's still stuff you guys don't know and that you'll never know because it hits too close to home for my family and my daughter. I apologize for that and my daughter and my husband that I can't share those things. Those things are not mine to share. So I, you'll never know those things that we may be going through and that's okay. You don't need to know those things. And so it's important for us to just really focus on to do. You know, really working to live our life in his will, in his way and being grateful that he is willing to lead us if we are willing to give our whole lives and hearts over to him. And, and we are not supposed to be mimicking these people. We're supposed to be a light in the world to be a better example. I apologize for the coughs. I thought I had some water, but I don't <laugh> here on my di on my desk. But it's just important that we need to be the best examples of Christ that we can. So the right perspective in regards to personal growth and self-improvement. This right perspective will allow you to see where you're flourishing, like doing really well because a lot of times if we're so down on ourselves and we have low self-esteem and self-worth, we will not identify the things that we're actually getting better at, the strengths that we're actually continuing to excelling in, which really sucks cause we need to do that more. So we'll be able to, when we have that right perspective, acknowledge the places where we're growing and we're flourishing, but also where we need to work, where we need to actually put some time in and we need to figure it out. And we thought maybe it was okay, but actually we realized no that whatever that is that we need to work on, which is maybe it's like being short with people when we're having a hard day when we should not be treating people like that. Maybe we need to work on it more than we thought we did, right? There are definitely things that come up for me often in therapy where I'm like, oh, you know, I did really good at that. I did really good at like responding and not reacting in that situation. But you know, there was a time only just last week where I was like that and my therapist is like, yeah, you know, things are gonna go up and down and you just have to continue working on them. And it's like, yes, I do need to continue working on them. You can recognize where you've had growth and strength and where things went really well and where you had wins. But then you can also recognize, okay, but you know it's going really well but it, it could be better and this is what I need to do to work on it. And so shifting your perspective will give you more truth about like what's truly going on in your life there, by being able to identify like what needs to change. So if you are again honest as we start at the top of this, if you're honest about what's going on, but what you're struggling with, what's going really well, how your life is, whether you feel like you are being more biased in your perspective or allowing yourself to have a broad widened perspective, you can identify like what needs to change when you allow yourself to open up even just like a little bit and then a little bit more over time. It doesn't have to go from like closed perspective all the way to open. I mean that would be beneficial, but it might be overwhelming for you. And then you might actually like take a step back in your growth in that. So something to consider. Also allowing ourselves to really see what we need to give up. You know, who doesn't need to be in our lives, what actually needs to be added, things like that. I've had that conversation with God multiple times where it's like, oh, maybe I really should be giving this up. And he's like, yes. And you know, really being honest with yourself about what can stay, what needs to go, when needs to come in, what can, like, needs to be reevaluated in a different time period. Is this actually helping or hurting? And you have the right perspective, you'll be able to do that. And when you have the right perspective, um, when you're asking God to reveal to you like what needs to actually happen in your life, then you're actually able to make those change and those things will benefit your personal growth and foster even more self-improvement towards who you are truly meant to be and fulfilling the will of God in your life. And just continually being a light in the world and blessing others and growing yourself. So having the right perspective for personal growth and self-improvement, meaning you are open to what needs to change and you're open to acknowledging the things that you're doing really well at and continually using those strengths and those skills to better your life and enjoy your life and feel fulfilled and bless others as well. So, but that's it, that's all five of the reasons that I wanted to share. With you so you understand the importance of having the right perspective in your life. So I really hope that it was helpful to you and even identifying scriptures that go along with those points. Um, but that's it. So thank you so much for live, for listening to the Real Positive Girl podcast again with me, Sabrina, I do encourage you to pop down into the show notes and come say hi to me on socials, whether it's TikTok or Instagram. Check out the YouTube channel, sign up for the weekly newsletter, suggest the topic, check out the journal, all the things and everything that you want to do. Um, but until next time, have a good one and I will see all of y'all next time. Bye friends.