Just a View…

Just a view … a mesmerising night time view, looking down from above.

The moments of joy and beauty you discover when you are away from home.

I took this photograph the other night while staying away from home. This city is hardly unfamiliar to me, but I had never seen this particular part of it from quite this height or perspective before.

Far below, the roads, buildings, lights and moving cars formed patterns that I would never have noticed while walking through the streets. It was still the same city, but from above, it looked and felt completely different.

Sometimes, we do not need to travel very far to experience something new. A change of location, angle or viewpoint can be enough to interrupt the familiar and awaken our curiosity.

But first, we need to pause and notice.

Self-reflection gives us the opportunity to become aware of what we are seeing, thinking and assuming. Curiosity encourages us to look again and ask what else might be there. Together, they create space for Stretch-the-Box Thinking, moving beyond the most familiar or obvious perspective without pretending the box does not exist.

That is often where new ideas and possibilities begin to emerge.

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If you would like to play with self-reflection, curiosity, creativity and seeing things from a different perspective, you could try:

• Looking up, looking down or turning around somewhere familiar. What do you notice that you normally walk straight past?
• Taking a photograph from an unusual angle. Try getting closer, stepping further away or focusing on one tiny detail rather than the whole scene.
• Walking along a familiar street as though you were visiting it for the first time. What might catch the attention of someone who had never been there before?
• Changing your usual route, even if it is only by one street, and seeing what you discover along the way.
• Choosing an everyday object and imagining five completely different uses for it. The ideas do not need to be sensible. In fact, the ridiculous ones may spark the most interesting possibilities.
• Thinking of a belief or assumption you have made about a current situation. What might change if that assumption were not completely true?
• Looking at a challenge from above. If you could mentally step back and see the whole landscape, rather than only what is directly in front of you, what patterns, pathways or alternatives might become visible? Why not try drawing an “aerial view map” of the challenge with simple symbols?
• Asking someone else what they see. Their perspective may draw your attention to something you had not even considered.

Curiosity does not always begin with a grand adventure or a big question. Sometimes, it begins with self-reflection, pausing long enough to notice what is in front of us and wondering what we might see differently.

That curiosity can stretch our thinking, spark creativity and reveal possibilities that were already there, but were difficult to see from where we were standing.

Sometimes, it really is just a view.

And sometimes, that view helps us see everything a little differently.