Existential Optometry

“Which is better? Number one, or number two? Number three, or number four? Again, three… four…”

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about reflection and the lenses through which we view the world.

If you happen to be someone who needs prescriptive lenses to see clearly, you’re familiar with this process of comparison, and assessment, being introduced to new ways to bend the refraction of light that hits your retina — an effort to identify a combination of prisms working in concert until you see most clearly in your present state of health.

Prior to going through this process with the phoropter (pictured here), perhaps you had an incomplete idea of seeing clearly. You had acclimated to functioning with sub-par clarity. And now, here you are improved for going through the process, more lucid than when you arrived.

The experiences of our lives are not unlike these lenses. Some blur and obfuscate reality; others twist and distort the objects and events in front of us; still others crisp and freshen them.

It is our life’s work to cobble together the correct synthesis of these lenses until we can see ourselves clearly and understand how to move through the world. We may find that prescription once or many times if we’re lucky, but time will continue to advance and atrophy that combination until the process is required again.

#Rx: If you find that things don’t feel clear, perhaps it is time to bring new events and experiences into your line of sight, in order to find focus.

#cogitations #thoughtleadership #selfdevelopment #reflection #bcba #leadership #changemanagement #changeyourthinking #nonbinarysolutions