Have you ever lived in the same place for a number of years? You wish things would be fresh, new and interesting but don’t know how to make the changes you feel are necessary. Well sometimes we need to get away in order to gain that fresh perspective. Living with the same old every day we get used to it and we lose a sense of how things could be different. Sometimes we need someone else’s thoughts but sometimes we just need to get away.

Well that is exactly what I have been, away, away to a totally different part of the world. I didn’t go there to gain that new and fresh perspective but that is what I got. I went with my wife to Ecuador, into the mountains with a group of people to help a couple of churches with some work they needed help with on their buildings.

The different people, the different culture, their different perspective on life, and their values all made me realize we have so much and it made me value what we have a lot more. We did not go there as tourists staying in some ritzy hotel. We had a hotel at the bottom end of the scale but clean and comfortable. Yet for their standards it was above what a lot of them could afford.

When you are looking for ideas whether it is living outdoors ideas or just “ideas for living” periodically getting a fresh perspective is important. How you get that fresh perspective could be as varied as the number of people seeking it. Sometimes just walking away from the situation for a few minutes or hours and coming back to it is all we need to do. Sometimes it means talking to someone else and asking them what they would do. (I have had my own business for 25 plus years and sometimes while working I have asked someone who is first day on the job what they would do and even though their answer was not a good solution often it has caused me to see the situation from a different perspective and a good solution has come to my mind.) Sometimes it takes getting away altogether, like going to a different part of the world.

Are you stuck? Do you need a fresh perspective? How do you shake things up so you can get back in the groove?

As we approach the spring here in Canada we may need to start thinking about our outdoor living space and think of shaking things up, having a fresh perspective. If part of that fresh perspective is some new outdoor furniture try looking at our Outdoor furniture stores “Outdoor Cedars” or “Teaks n More”. You will find some great furniture that will give you that fresh look you desire.

That fresh perspective means nothing if you do nothing about it.

Continually developing “ideas for living”