THE KEY CHANGE: From Viewpoint to View-Field

The key shift in awareness is

from self-centered viewpoint to ever-widening view-fields

CHANGE. We want it. We work toward it. We try innovative technologies, different organizations, new laws, other politicians, varied diets, fresh relationships, creative ways of working, and more. These tremendous efforts have shifted many things. The world seems perched on the edge of a major transformation. That monumental shift cannot happen, however, if one central factor isn't altered. The key change at the foundation of all others is to move from a self-centered viewpoint to ever-widening View-fields.

Most of the time, we see ourselves standing at the center of the world. As the drawing in the upper left hand corner depicts, each of us experiences life revolving around "Me." This Me is the central character in every life story. In this scenario, all change is directed toward what benefits the Me no matter how much it undermines the surrounding world. Such self-centered viewpoints spawn the greed, isolation and limitation that separate the haves from the have-nots, the powerful from the powerless, the in group from those on the fringes of society. In this structure, all change is merely a shift in appearance. The divisions that wound the world are reinforced and deepened.

On the other hand, events arise that knock the Me off center. Economic collapse, climate change, and social uprisings can push the Me to the edge of the world stage. Despite the personal trauma of this experience, a great opportunity opens before the Me. As the second drawing from the upper left depicts, the Me's self-centered view can widen into an arc of perception. Viewpoint can open to the View-field. The concerns of the individual can include the concerns of the whole. Change from this perspective can be directed toward benefiting as much territory as possible. The View-field approach spawns more compassion, connection and expansion. This key shift in outlook generates true structural change in what the Me thinks, says and creates.

As the third and fourth drawings above depict, each shift in viewpoint can widen into a broader View-field of concern. Our lives change from being all about Me to being about the role I can play in the wider world. This is not a diminishment of self. It is an expansion to a broader definition of self, a Me that lives as We.

How has life urged you to move from a self-centered viewpoint to a broader View-field? Please share your experience. It will help us all change the ways we see and transform the world we are creating.

Read more about the View-field and other patterns of change in my book 24 Patterns of Wisdom. Click here to see a preview of what's inside. Click here to see the book trailer on YouTube.