A Snapshot Versus a Video

I tell my clients all the time. I regale them with examples of my snapshot versus video scenario. Yet I often fail at taking my own advice, looking for that video perspective rather than the snapshot that is so in front of me.

If you look out your window at this very minute, you will see a snapshot of life in NE Ohio or wherever you reside. With no photo shopping involved, it is an accurate pictorial version of life at this day and time.

But it is not the video of life in NE Ohio or elsewhere. July looks different and April looks different and October looks different than the view we see today.

I use this metaphor for any life challenge. The challenge is real. The disappointment is real. The frustration is certainly real. But it is real of the snapshot; it is not the video of the situation. Yes you are seeing snow. It is not the whole picture of life here on the North Coast.

Your disappointment at not getting the part is real. What you may not be able to see are the future frames of the video where you get an even better part because you were available. The NO is real. What you can’t see at the time is that the circumstances can change. We have to push ourselves to look for the next chapters, the next scenes of the movie.

In a week’s time a client when from didn’t-even-know –they-were-on-the-radar-screen to a YES to a NO and back to a YES. The NO really was a NO, it just wasn’t the final scene, and it wasn’t the whole video.

A client came into my office and noted how much things can change in a week. For years she had no interest in her for-sale business. Then a buyer appeared who wanted an immediate deal.

There is a saying that good times don’t last long sometimes. The bad times don’t last forever either. We need to remind ourselves to look for the video. The snapshot tells us just part of the story.


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