There is something I don’t do as often as I should: looking up a word in a dictionary. Prior to writing this; I did it for the word perspective and I noticed how appropriate it was to do so. There is a real benefit in looking up words as it allows to clarify the understanding we have of a word and to fine tune our ability to think.

This is exactly the same benefit as the one we have from asking the person we are discussing with, to explain her perspective on a statement she has shared. Inquiring about it lets us discover, as the Cambridge dictionary, says “a particular way of considering something”, meaning from which point of view she sees her statement enabling her to make it. Quite often seeing someone else’s point of view helps us see if our opinion really differs or if they might even be complimentary even if they seemed contradictory at first sight. In a similar manor it helps to describe one’s own point of view, that is the “point” where we are standing and from which we are seeing our statements and opinions. By sharing it, we invite our partner to take a look at the world from the point we are seeing it.

Here we go:

Imagine yourself standing in a room and looking at the other wall. You see someone standing there. That person is the only person you see and that person only can see you.

You both have a very different view of the room, even though it is the same room.

That’s what a point of view does, it opens up one view, the one from which you are standing.

Being able to see that different points of view show a different world adds perspective to your thinking, or, as the Cambridge dictionary says: the ability to “think about a situation or problem in a wise and reasonable way”.

It’s worth doing…