A different perspective can change everything, the challenge remains in learning to adopt fresh…

A different perspective can change everything, the challenge remains in learning to adopt fresh ideas.

2026 Day 204. #PersonalDays.

Driving has never been my favourite activity. I hate the traffic jams, I hate the unruly driving around with no sense of traffic laws, and above all I hate sitting idle and waiting. I have always absolutely loathed waiting around and driving for nothing.

Red lights have been the bane of my driving career. I have often taken the longer routes just so I wouldn’t have to wait. I was never good at the waiting game but I’ve built some patience over the years. All of the work seems to fall apart once I am in the drivers seat.

Photo by Jonas Von Werne on Unsplash

Recently I was driving around the city and for the first time in a while I was enjoying the drive. I wasn’t in a hurry to get anywhere, I wasn’t on time or early, I was simply driving around.

A little good company and everything completely changed for me. I was suddenly having an excellent time that I did not want to end. Each traffic jam was another happy moment, each red light was elicited another joyous reaction.

This was extremely surprising to me.

While I have driven around with good company before getting stuck was always a disappointment.

I believe this used to happen for a few reasons

  • It was never about the journey or the together. It was either about the activity at the destination or the destination itself.
  • Some times I have acted as chauffeur. Helping tourists commute to one place from another whenever they were in my city. I enjoyed showing them around but the traffic would still bother me.
  • I have always been time bound while driving around. If I planned to reach in 15 minutes, then I would curse every time I was simply paused in the car.

I was still driving because I had to but suddenly I want the moment to go on for just a little bit more. I was suddenly greedy for the moment to not end and this greed made me appreciate the wait times more and more.

Each unwanted stop that would have felt like another obstacle handed down to me, felt like another blessing.

Only a slight shift in my wants and needs, and all my issues with driving around were suddenly no more. Each problem felt like it had changed sides and was now aiding me in quest of borrowing some extra moments.

Just one change in the context and the entire situation has now flipped on its head.

Suddenly the powers of idealism took hold and I come imagine something that didn’t not exist; but I wish it did.

A slight change in perspective (though the source of this was not so straightforward) had such a profound effect on transforming my personal beliefs.

I have tried to come up with ways where I could force myself to look at the same things with a different perspective but most of those attempts only half work.

I believe the issue lies with idea that I must fully commit to this fresh perspective. Because I only believe in it half-heartedly, the results are also underwhelming. I believe more genuine efforts and stimulus will inspire more positive thoughts and optimism.

It is a nice little activity where I fool myself into being happier.

Sounds extreme weird when I put it like that, but that seems to be the current law.

See you tomorrow.