A Whole New World

Insight comes in many shapes and sizes. Sometimes it’s mundane, as simple as remembering where you put your misplaced keys. And sometimes insight irrevocably changes your perspective forever.

After 18 years, one of my dear friends recently had an insight about her marriage. She isn’t religious but describes the moment as “hearing the voice of God.” When this voice arrived, she suddenly knew what to do about her relationship. The clarity and confidence that came with her insight was a revelation, and things haven’t looked the same since.

Although grateful for her newfound clarity, my friend is also a little rattled. Her insight reordered her entire world. She’d spent years doing things based on the thinking she had at the time, and in an instant, much of that thinking simply dropped away. As the clouds in her reality parted, old behaviors no longer made sense. She is deeply certain about her next steps. She has bright hope for her future. But she’s also a bit shocked by how quickly the insight reorganized her brain space and how easily the old thinking vanished.

Insight is simple at its root – it’s basically just having a new idea about an old situation or habit. However, the implications of this simplicity can be far reaching and surprising. Having an insight can feel like waking up from a long sleep. Possibilities emerge. Old thinking – no matter how comfortable or familiar – loses its luster . Life looks different. New. Fresh. It feels like you can’t go back to the way you once thought. Not ever. Because you can’t. Not really. Not when you’ve leveled-up.

When humans figured out that Planet Earth is round, the subsequent paradigm shift permanently altered the way we explored our world. Operating based on our old idea – that the earth was flat – no longer made sense. We had a new level of consciousness and understanding to utilize.

This is what insight does. It levels up your consciousness. When your consciousness gets an upgrade, things look different. Your new idea makes you – in the most beautiful way – a brand new human being. And because this upgrade comes with a new level of understanding, you naturally get to keep it. The way you thought before looks stale, old, unhelpful. Maybe even a bit boring.

The fact that our minds are designed to allow for insight is one of the most fun, most beautiful, and most meaningful parts of being a human being. Even old habits – which are rumored to “die hard” – wither in the face of ideas that come from the deepest, most universal part of ourselves. Ideas that arrive with the gravity of the “voice of God”.

The rightness and truth of insight settles deep. It can give you a whole new lease on life. Or just help you find your keys.

Either way, you’re permanently better off. Take the upgrade.

Nikki Platte Nieves