Welcome Mountain Life Lens®
Between Mountain Life Lenses® and it’s mirror opposite, Carrot Life Lenses®, you self-assess as a Mountain Life Lens®.
A gentle reminder before we dig into your Mountain Life Lenses® report: to get the most out of your results, I recommend:
- Approach your results with curiosity not judgement.
- Pay attention to that little voice in your head when it reacts with surprise, disbelief etc. In other words watch where you’re focusing and how you react to your Life Lenses® results.
- Have fun! Seriously. Suffering is optional.
Using Life Lenses® will work best for you when you ditch the natural tendency to look only at the strengths of your Life Lenses® and the weaknesses of the other Lenses. To truly shine look for what the other Life Lenses® have to offer you. I promise it’s a ton!
Mountain Life Lens® description:
Mountain Life Lenses® (a.k.a. you!) are great at being able to see over the horizon to see what’s coming. You recognize trends easily. You naturally find patterns in large amounts of information. And you’re great at starting projects. Mountain Life Lenses® are big vision people.
Mountain Life Lenses® on a good day:
Mountains see the big picture.
Mountains relax by thinking big and broad, mulling over trends and patterns; their head (and attention) is focused upwards. If you could peek into their gray matter you’d see lots of thought bubbles floating by, connecting disparate ideas in new ways.
Mountain Life Lenses® love to try new things (the word ‘mistake’ isn’t really in their vocabulary) and consequently they can be quite forgiving. Something didn’t work out? No problem to a mountain, they’ll quickly have five more ideas about how to proceed.
Imagine standing atop a majestic mountain. The view is broad, wide, and encompassing. A mountain sees the forest not the individual trees. That’s its strength.
I’m married to the Mount Everest of mountains — he effortlessly skims thick reports and can see how the overall concepts connect (or don’t). He keeps his focus on the big picture.
True story:
I hate writing reports. Really, really hate writing reports. To the point that I’d rather sign up for root canal treatment than write a report. Folks, it’s that bad!
One day, years ago now, I was driven to tears, completely frazzled by having not one, not two, but three reports all due at the same time. I was overwhelmed, couldn’t focus, couldn’t get them done.
During a call to a friend, she sensed my distress and ever so gently said, “Lee-Anne you know you can hire people who love to write reports right?”
Well, I nearly choked on the muffin I was eating. How had my genius friend hit on the one thing that I needed — and that I just couldn’t see for myself? Of course it was because she, as a Mountain Life Lens® , saw the big picture and immediately knew the best way forward.
Meanwhile, I had lost my vision and unconsciously assumed everyone prefers major dental treatment to writing reports. I assumed I was doomed to grind away doing something I didn’t like.
So I put out the call and found the perfect person. Said person couldn’t understand the aspects of program evaluation I love, but she’s nuts about writing reports and doing data analysis. In fact she’s the perfect complement to me. From then on I never took an evaluation contract without her. Enter grace, ease, efficiency and the opportunity to both shine in our own unique ways.
And I’m eternally thankful to my dear Mountain Life Lens® who was clearly having a good day and effortlessly paved the way up and out.
“If the vision is there the means will follow.” ~ Faith Popcorn
Mountain Life Lens® on a bad day (no worries, we all have ‘em):
On a bad day Mountain Life Lenses® get lost in the practical details of day to day life. They don’t see the trees for the forest. Remember where Mountains look? Up. On a bad day they can have their heads in the clouds.
True story:
I entered the room where I was about to do a three day training and let out a gasp of horror. Despite my detailed instructions about the tech, set up, and room layout I’d need, the organizer hadn’t focused on the detail.
The room was big enough. The temperature was okay. There was natural light.
The problem? There weren’t enough chairs for everyone and there were three HUGE pillars and a fireplace in the middle of the room which meant that at no point could everyone in the room see me at once.
I spent the two days dancing around the room so at least some of the people could see me some of the time.
The organizer was a prime example of a Mountain Life Lens® on a bad day; head in the clouds and not paying attention to important details.
The devil is in the details.
Where Mountain Life Lenses® look: down for the details.
Mountain Life Lenses® colour: blue.
A sound that represents Mountain Life Lenses® (notice the feeling of being up in the clouds): add link to airplane clip
What stresses a Mountain Life Lens®: too many details which feel like too many rules, too constricting.
What a Mountain Life Lens® values: vision, strategy.
Take action now as a Mountain Life Lens®
- Learn — watch for examples of your Mountain Life Lens® in your own life. Watch where you shine and build on your natural Mountain strengths.
- Laugh — check out this funny clip that highlights that what Mountain Life Lenses® see as “normal” and “natural” can seem overwhelming to others. link to ship launch video
- Lead — practice switching lenses and seeking out the gifts the Carrot Life Lenses® have for you e.g. focus and details.
“Don’t sweat the small stuff.” ~ Richard Carlson
Go big or go home.
From a Mountain Life Lens® – “I can tease out trends in any pile of info. I love seeing the big picture”
