Someone once said “Perception is reality.” I find this statement to be very true. In fact, I use it all of the time. The way I see things is not how you may see them. Take the opening statement of this post. I start out by saying “Someone once said…”. You may think that I took a shortcut or was too busy to look up who made the statement…that perception becomes your reality.
The glass, be it half full or half empty, is another classic example of “perception”. Some may always say that it’s half empty, others may say that it’s half full. Some may say that it depends on the situation. It could also depend on how thirsty you are.
Let me share something that happened to me earlier this week. I had been trying to get a meeting with someone and finally got one. She cancelled, and then went dark…crickets. Honestly, I was a little annoyed. I recently saw her at an event and asked what had happened. She apologized (clearly backed into a corner). I was still annoyed. She explained that someone in the family was ill and had recently passed, and that family had taken up all of her time. My perception became my reality…It was my bias from doing sales for so many years. Internally, I felt like crap.
There are many things that determine our perception and reality:
- What is your agenda?
- What do you want / need?
- What do you fear?
- What is your mindset at that moment?
- What are your beliefs / values?
How do you overcome all this? Have as many facts as possible. The more you know, the more informed you are, the better you will be.
One of my favorite quotes on this topic is: “Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.” — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations. I feel this quote really drives the point home.
So, who was it that said “Perception is reality”? –Lee Atwater