Knowing the content of your character and the limitlessness of your potential can be hard when the world around you is filled with limiting beliefs and commonly accepted glass ceilings. I believe that most people have no idea what the opportunities that surround us are solely because they don’t have the ability to see them.
Humans are creatures of habit. We quickly adapt to a way of thinking or course of action, and it permeates every part of our lives including our mindset and perspective. I think that one of these habits that has solidly influenced our generation is the tendency to “scroll” through things. If you are still reading this, then you may have a little bit more discipline than most people. Social media has created an environment of processing information in minute bits for seconds at a time. We literally scan over a lifetime worth of data every week. The only time when most people take the time to truly assess something is when an external superior requires it. (i.e.: homework, studying for tests, etc)
The power of possibility is only as strong as an individuals ability to see that which currently is not. This takes a deeper level of insight than we have the habit of loaning to incoming information. I have seen a boat load of comments being made that “the American Dream is dead.” Each one followed by a torrent of potential packed, pessimistic people agreeing that there is no opportunity for significant advancement any more. Half of which quickly follow-up with a meme repost to their own page. I don’t believe the issue is a lack of possibility. I believe that it is due to a lack of the ability to see them. Our habit of ingesting insignificance has created an insatiable appetite for it that has left our foresight and instinct malnourished.
As each day passes, we come into contact with a library full of inconsequential information. This has always been the case, but now we carry them around in our pocket. We get notifications about them. We turn our eyes to them habitually, often without even thinking about it. This focus on a pool of stagnant water has created a blindness to the rain of untapped opportunity in our world. The issue isn’t our environment. The issue is the dirty lens we are squinting through to see it.
