Savor The Bird’s Eye View

You Are Doing Better Than You Think

The Bird’s Eye View is one of my favorite perspectives. The dictionary defines the bird’s eye view as  
a view from a high angle as if seen by a bird in flight, or an overall or cursory look at something.

Often we look at the street or “right in front of us” point of view and get discouraged. 

But, what if rather than zooming in, we zoom out and consider that we are going better than we think? 

Zooming out and utilizing the Bird’s Eye View has us focusing on showing up, that we are in motion and moving forward. It reminds us that we are uncommon and making the choice to keep going. 

Monday night I decided to join a huge challenge.

I joined St. Jude’s 50 pushup-a-day challenge for August. The good news is that I can do push-ups. The bad news is that I typically do not do more than 5 at a time. And, it has been a long time since I did 50 on the same day. It seemed like a great reason to maximize fitness and see the results of a habit over time. I am not sure exactly what pushed me forward, but I clicked join and knew I was committed. I would without a doubt find a way to be successful.

My first thought was, “I have all day to do 50 push-ups”. I have all day to do 50-pushups, which means, if I break this into really small pieces, What if I consider that I am awake for 17 hours a day and have 50 pushups to do during that time? Rather than thinking about doing one set of 50 push-ups (at this time it feels rather near impossible), I decided that I had all day to get the task done. I could literally do one pushup every 20 minutes and complete my task. Looking at the push-ups with a bird’s eye view, and breaking the task into small pieces doesn't just feel possible, it seems easy. From the bird’s eye view, the consistent push-up form would be observed. 

Next time I am frustrated and feel down about my performance, I am going to choose to zoom out and imagine what I look like from a bird’s eye view. I have a good feeling my perspective might shift and I’ll realize that I am probably doing better than I think.