One day someone said to me, “Your scope is too small. You think too small.” I remember being intrigued by those words. Not offended. Not even necessarily in agreement. Just intrigued. What exactly did they mean?
I always thought of myself as open-minded. I like to learn. I like to listen to people. I am curious about things I don’t know, and I have always believed that there is something to learn from almost every experience. So, how could my scope be too small? As the person explained what they meant, I began to understand. They weren’t talking about whether I was open-minded. They were talking about how big I was willing to think. How far was I willing to go beyond what I knew? How willing was I to imagine something that I had never experienced? How willing was I to believe that there was a world beyond the world I had become comfortable with?
That conversation stayed with me. Because sometimes we can convince ourselves that we have grown simply because we have learned something new. But growth isn’t always about what we know. Sometimes growth is about what we are willing to consider. I experienced this in a very personal way when I wrote and published my book. When I first thought about the book, I naturally thought about the people who knew me. People who read my blog. People who knew my story or had some connection to me. Then the book was published, and something shifted in my thinking. I realized that the book wasn’t only for the people who knew me. It was for someone I had never met. Someone in another country. Someone who might stumble across my words and see life differently because of something I wrote. That realization made me think about scope.
If I only thought about the people I already knew, then I had already decided how far the book could go before it even had a chance to travel. I had to think beyond my usual audience. Beyond my usual experiences. Beyond what was familiar. And maybe that is what happens with us sometimes.
We think we have expanded our minds because we have moved beyond where we were. But then something happens. Someone challenges an idea we have held for years. We meet someone whose life is completely different from ours. We enter a room where we don’t know anyone. We travel somewhere unfamiliar. We hear an opinion that makes us uncomfortable.
We are presented with an opportunity that feels bigger than anything we have done before. And suddenly, we discover that perhaps our world wasn’t as big as we thought it was.
Maybe our scope was still limited. I have been thinking about what it means to expand our scope. How do we push ourselves beyond the boundaries created by our own experiences? Because our experiences can be both wonderful teachers and very convincing limitations.
We often use what we have experienced to determine what is possible.
“I’ve never done that.”
“I don’t know anyone who has done that.”
“People like me don’t usually do that.”
“That’s not really my world.”
But who decided that? Perhaps sometimes we confuse what is familiar with what is possible. And maybe fear plays a bigger role than we want to admit.
It is much easier to remain within the boundaries of what we know. There is comfort in knowing how things work. Comfort in knowing the people around us. Comfort in knowing what is expected of us. Comfort in being good at something because we have done it many times before.
But there is another kind of comfort that comes from discovering that we are capable of more than we thought. And we can only discover that if we are willing to step outside of our usual scope. Maybe expanding our scope doesn’t mean completely changing who we are. Maybe it means becoming curious about what exists beyond us.
Read something you normally wouldn’t read. Talk to someone whose experiences are different from yours. Listen without immediately deciding whether you agree. Travel, if you can. Learn something simply because it interests you. Ask questions. Allow yourself to be uncomfortable. Dream about something that seems a little too big. And perhaps most importantly, stop using your past as the only measurement of your future.
I wonder sometimes how much of our lives is shaped by the size of the world we have allowed ourselves to see. What if there is more? What if the opportunity is there, but our scope is too small to recognize it? What if the person we need to meet is outside our usual circle? What if the idea that could change our lives comes from somewhere completely unfamiliar? What if we have been asking, “Can I do this?” when perhaps we should be asking, “What if I can?”
I don’t think expanding our scope means that we will suddenly become fearless. Perhaps it means we learn to move forward while still feeling afraid. Maybe it means allowing ourselves to discover that the world is much bigger than the little corner we have become accustomed to. I am still learning this myself. That comment about my scope being too small made me look at myself differently. It made me ask questions I hadn’t been asking. How big am I willing to think? How far am I willing to go beyond my experiences? What have I decided is “not for me” simply because I have never experienced it? And perhaps the biggest question of all:
What might I discover about myself if I stop limiting myself to the world I already know?
I don’t have all the answers. But maybe that’s the point. Maybe expanding our scope begins with being willing to ask better questions.
So, what about you? Is your scope as big as you think it is? Or, like me, have you ever had a moment when you realized that there might be a much bigger world waiting just beyond the boundaries of your thinking? Maybe it’s time we step outside of what we have always called “our world” and see what else is out there.
Who knows? We might discover that our world was never as small as we thought. Maybe it was simply our scope that was too small.
See you soon! Join me again next Wednesday at 8:00 p.m. (Bogotá time) for another reflection on life, faith, growth, and the lessons we learn along the way. If this week’s reflection encouraged you, there are many more thoughtful reflections in my book, “Thoughts on Life”, now available.
Before you go, I’d genuinely love to hear your thoughts. Please leave a comment below. Every perspective is valuable, and your insights often help me see things in a completely different way. If you’re not comfortable commenting publicly, feel free to reach out to me through any medium. I’d love to hear from you.
Your feedback not only encourages me, but it may also inspire a future blog and help someone else who reads it. You never know how your words might make a difference.
Remember, life is meant to be lived, so always strive to live your best life.
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