From Chapter 11 “Perspective” in Ingredients of Outliers. Lemons? Or Lemonade? You’ve probably heard this century-old bit of wisdom about perspective: “If life hands you a lemon, make lemonade.” Although it didn’t originate with him, the late Dale Carnegie, well-known writer, lecturer and selfimprovement guru, commented on it in his book How to Stop Worrying and Start Living. First published in 1946, the book is still in print today, with more than six million copies sold in dozens of languages. “The fool,” he wrote, “if he finds that life has handed him a lemon, he gives up and says: … [Read more...]
Change Your Perspective, Change Your Life
From Chapter 11 “Perspective” in Ingredients of Outliers. Life is simply about perspective. If ranked, this is the most important of all the lessons I’ve learned. Simply changing your perspective changes everything. For example, I recently had a patient who was in moderate respiratory distress from the pulmonary embolism we diagnosed in the emergency department. He was also dying of colon cancer. When I told him about this latest diagnosis, he said, “Whew, at least I’m still on the right side of the turf.” For most of us—me included—the thought of a pulmonary embolism would be … [Read more...]