What Is an Experience That Had a Deep Impact on How You See the World?
We all have an experience that has shaped our worldview. Think about yours.
20-second read
Below is a list of experiences.
They came from a dinner party that my co-founder attended with a group of strangers where they were asked a question: What is an experience that had a deep impact on how you see the world?
These were some of the responses:
Caring for a child
Starting a business
Being a minority
Begging for money
Being on a jury
Performing a mathematical proof
Experiencing death/loss
Killing an animal
Shitting in the woods
Firing someone from their job
This is a fun (and important) thought exercise. It’ll cause you to reflect and refocus your perspective—even if it’s just for a moment.
We all have an experience that has shaped our worldview. Think about yours.
I did. My response is below.
Share your experience on LinkedIn here.
When I turned 30, I quit drinking. (I’m currently 42). This almost wasn’t my choice for the top experience. Because it was more like a decision as opposed to an experience. But it actually was in a moment, a single experience, that I made this choice. So it felt appropriate.
The birth of my kid, choosing my (now) wife on a dating app, taking a huge leap of faith to move to a random state that I had never been to before for a job with zero guarantees (including a paycheck) all came up as potential numbers ones.
But none of those would have been possible had I kept drinking. I would have blown them all up just like I was doing to everything else in my life at the time.
That might sound heavy or overly dramatic. But it’s not, really. It’s just my choice. And now it’s just life. But looking back, it was for sure the catalyst for all that’s good in my life today. It’s allowed me to love myself, love others, and it makes most of life’s challenges feel completely insignificant.