Shifty View

Every morning, after brewing coffee and exercise and getting dressed, I sit down at my dining room table.

I sit in the same seat with my back to the windows, facing a watercolor painting hanging on our wall, and I begin. For years this is where I've sat. I write in this seat, back to the window. I read here. I journal. I've even settled into this seat during family meals, like an old man claiming his territory.

Today I didn't.

This morning I shifted one seat to the left. It's a round table, so no matter where I sit, like King Arthur, I'm on equal footing with myself. But this view is totally different. Straight ahead is a small, high window looking out over some crab apple trees and sky. To my right are the windows glowing with the sunrise out of the corner of my eye. I feel different.

This is a key experience in our creative habits, to shift perspective once in a while. To move a quarter turn in our heart, mind and body in order to view the world, our creativity, our input with just enough change to be refreshing but still comfortable enough to be fully engaged.

This is how life coaching works, by the way. This is my role in working with creatives and family dudes. We shift perspective time and again in hopes of discovering and creating and moving and engaging.

Give it a try. Shift a habit tomorrow, not too much, but enough to notice a different view. Take note and try again in another area of life: reactions, responses, scheduled meals, adventures with your kids, prayer, writing position, recording location...

Get shifty.