Myopic Vision
What is Myopic Vision?
What comes to your mind when you hear
the word myopia? How would you define myopic vision? What are the effects of
myopic vision on your capacity to enjoy life? These are some of the questions I
want to answer throughout this article.
Some synonyms for myopic include
shortsighted, nearsighted. To be myopic also means you are unimaginative,
uncreative, unadventurous and narrow-minded.
Oftentimes we can tell physiological
myopia in ourselves and others because you do not struggle to identify it. I
personally struggle with it to a certain extent which explains why I always
want to sit as close as possible to the speaker/teacher or trainer lest I miss
out on what they are demonstrating because of distance.
I am more concerned however with a
different kind of myopia in this article. While Medical, physiological myopia
is easy to identify, the kind of myopia I want to focus on is more subtle in
nature. When it comes to recognizing our blessedness and abundance, most of us
struggle to see beyond the surface. There are many reasons for this kind of
thing. I will enumerate some of them below.
Causes of Myopic Vision
We are trained from a young age to
look for shiny things. Our definition of the blessed is limited to only the
things valued by the wider society. We want to drive the biggest car, live in
the coolest neighborhood, hold a high paying job and receive the accolades of
our peers and such like things. For the record, none of these things is bad in
and of itself. The problem arises when we make these the only standard by which
we determine success and blessedness. This is how myopic vision is formed. When
our focus becomes what everyone else is focusing on, we miss out on all the
other good things that are around us.
Familiarity. They say it breeds
contempt and this is as true as it can get. We never outgrow our childish
tendencies however old we grow unless we make a conscious decision to do so.
Like children we are fascinated with things just for a moment before we get
bored and go on to the next thrill. We can spend a whole year as children
craving for a particular toy. When our parents finally come around to buying it
for us, we only enjoy its novelty for the moment. Give it two or three days and
the novelty has faded off. We are back where we started. What happens? We are
just experiencing the effect of familiarity. Before we had it, it was all we
ever wanted. Spend some time with it however and it becomes part of the
furniture. Think about the things in your life that are now part of the
furniture. Has your health become part of the furniture? What about your
ability to move a limb? The air you breath? Remember how that degree was a big
deal before you had it. What you take or granted today was once a far-fetched dream.
Never forget that.
We are lazy. It takes some deep
introspection to see some of the things we have. There are certain great things
in our lives that lie beneath the surface. I like giving this example of how
pain is registered in your brain. Imagine what would happen if you didn’t have
a nervous system. It would mean you can have your foot on fire for 20 minutes
before you notice it is burning up. That would mean you have lost an entire
foot depending on the severity of the fire. The question therefore is, how
significant is your nervous system? Without a doubt it is a very critical
system for the functioning of your body. I then ask another question, Can you
see your nerves? Not with a naked eye. I could go further and say that I have
never seen any of my nerves. I have only read about the system in biology. As a
result it is possible never to take note of it and the vital role it plays in
my life. It takes a deep, focused look to see it for what it is. What is the
lesson here? Some of the great things we have in our lives are not easily found
on the surface. Unless we dig deep there is no way we will be made aware of
them. Digging deep means some work must be put in. This is not an endeavor for
the lazy and unmotivated.
A lack of imagination. We can blame
our lack of imagination when it comes to seeing things in a narrow minded way.
Because of this, we fail to appreciate the myriad ways we can interpret what is
before us. It is not so much what is before us that matters but the
interpretation we bring to it. A wise man once said, we see things not as they
are but as we are. Our perception is more important than the physical thing we
see before us. When one person sees a cypress tree, all they can think of is
firewood, someone else will see it and think furniture, another will see timber
for roofing purposes, yet another one will think only of its aesthetic value.
Each of these people, has a degree of imagination to come to these conclusions.
Someone else will see all these possibilities at once. What you need to do is
develop what I call 360 degree thinking. With this you purpose to look at
things from all possible perspectives so that at the end of the day, you have
what it takes to make right choices.
Effects of Myopic
Vision.
This kind of vision leaves you with
little to be grateful for. When you see things only in black and white, you are
bound to miss out on many things you could be grateful for. They say every
cloud has a silver lining. With myopia you miss out on all those silver linings
and remain focused only on the darkness of the cloud.
Myopic vision limits your
possibilities. When you can’t see around the bend, you are limited to seeing
only what is before you. This means a lot you could take note of passes you by.
You cannot function without the things you can see. You are limited to what is
in your line of vision.
It means you identify opportunities
too late in the day. The people who make it big in some places are the early
adopters. I am sure you are familiar with people who enter certain lines of
business hoping to make a killing but are disappointed. They never seem to know
why because everyone before them seemed to be making it in the same line. It is
possible, they missed the bus by coming in too late. By the time you hear it is
a deal, it is no longer a deal. By the time it is public knowledge, steer clear
of it. There is no money to be made unless you give it a twist of your own. MJ
Demarco speaks about it in the Commandment of Entry in his book The Millionaire
Fastlane.
With this vision you live from a
place of lack. You see shortages everywhere in your life. You are poor in the
midst of plenty. Reminds me of Midas who thought that all he needed in life is
gold. He asked Dionysus to bless him such that everything he touched would turn
into gold. When he was granted his wish, life became much more complicated than
he imagined. When he touched his food, it turned to gold. When he embraced his
daughter she became a fine statue of gold. What joy would all that gold bring
him? It wasn’t long before he sought a reversal. Don’t be like Midas.
This vision is responsible for much
of the complaining you see around you. I can see it with the Jews when they
complained to Moses about his taking them from Egypt. They had the audacity to
tell Moses that they were better off in captivity. They were an early
manifestation of the Stockholm Syndrome. They spoke about the food they used to
have in Egypt forgetting the torture and torment they had been under. They
failed to see what God had done for them and where He was taking them to.
Myopia makes us think only of today and what we can have today. It is a great
loss.
Curing Myopic Vision
Just like there are remedies for
physiological myopia, there are ways of dealing with the kind of myopia we have
discussed here. The simplest remedy is to become more aware of your
environment. You must slow down to give yourself a chance to embrace the things
which pass you by because of your rush. Instead of living only for the
destination, we must learn to enjoy the journey as has been so often said. The
practice of mindfulness has huge benefits for those who do not want to remain
myopic in their perspective. With it you learn to take everything in as you go
alone. You understand that every moment is rich and must be fully savored. A
mindset of abundance also helps us see beyond the surface into the depths of
what is. Finally a belief in the supernatural goes a long way in expanding our
vision beyond what is logical.
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