Understanding Beliefs and Perspectives

I want to highlight a great TedX Talk and the lessons embedded in it, which was delivered by, Lisa Bilyeu. In the talk, Lisa reflects on the beliefs and perspectives of the people in her life, how that interfaced with her perspectives and aspirations, and the way she understands those influences now.

Lisa grew up being told that women were supposed to stay at home and raise children. This was a perspective Lisa adopted because at that point she didn’t know any other way to think, so she put her aspirations aside to fit within that expectation. She then gained an awareness around what she wanted, which was to be an academy award winning filmmaker, but her father disapproved because he wanted her to be a housewife. Even before her wedding, Lisa’s grandfather told her that she needed to “Obey your husband” in order to have a happy marriage.

So, when life started to happen for her, Lisa slipped into the beliefs and perspectives she was comfortable with, an ideology she had grown accustomed to which was being a housewife, and did so for 8 years.

It’s so powerful to reflect on that because of what Lisa has accomplished now. Lisa helped grow Quest Nutrition to a billion dollar company and empowering other women to step into what lights them up and what they authentically enjoy doing.

But the final point is if you spend your entire life accommodating to the perspectives of others, you might be missing out on a world of opportunity.