Perspective is the lens with which we digest and react to the world we live in.
How we develop perspective is one of the most intriguing processes for me. Prospective has a pronounced effect on everything we do in life, how we feel and react to the most minuscule of events to the most traumatic.
Perspective and perception go hand in hand. How we perceive is the first step in the process of perspective. How we process what is said and what we see form our thoughts and the lens we use to process the information received. We then process this information in the brain and it creates the perspectives we use in our lives. This is a simplified example of a much more complex process. I wanted to expound on my ideas so we can understand how it works and use it to our advantage.
Our perspective rules our interactions with others and ourselves. In all honesty is one of the most powerful tools we have to create the life we want to live. In my soon to be released book, Expectation Therapy, I discuss the importance of expectations being the root of all thought and creativity and how they are based on two central points of view; fear and faith. These two lenses, fear and faith, also correspond and correlate to the perspectives we form. If our expectations are formed in faith they tend to be positive thus the thoughts you have create positive expectations that are the groundwork to forming positive perspectives. Let’s create an example to better demonstrate my point. You are on a trail jogging along at a comfortable pace when you round a turn and low and behold, you spot the most gorgeous person (man or women) jogging toward you. As you get closer your eyes meet and there is a glimmer of interest from both of you but you continue to jog on, moving down the trail. You can’t get your mind off of the expectation that you would like to meet this person and get know them better. Your jogging continues and you pass them time and time again over the course of several days. Your mind is racing in anticipation forming a perception of what this person will be like. They have a great smile, nice body, and all of the physical attributes that appeal to you. Finally after a week of building up to the anticipation of stopping and talking to this person you make your move. You stop them and start a conversation! (First congratulations on overcoming your fear, it’s what stops us from growing and learning.) Now you ask if they would like to have a jogging partner for the rest of this run, they agree and you take off jogging. You start with small conversation and begin to learn about this person, single, never been married, etc. As you jog the conversation turns a little more serious and all of a sudden you realize that your worlds are miles apart and there is very little common ground for a relationship. You are disappointed in the realization that your perceptions in the physical were correct but your perspective that it might lead to a relationship was not. How could this be?
By definition:
Perception: noun
- The act or the effect of perceiving
- Insight or intuition gained by perceiving
- The ability or capacity to perceive
- Way of perceiving; awareness or consciousness; view: advertising affects the customer’s perception of a product.
- (Zoology) the process by which an organism detects and interprets information from the external world by means of the sensory receptors
- (Law) law the collection, receipt, or taking into possession of rents, crops, etc.
Perspective: noun
- A way of regarding situations, facts, etc., and judging their relative importance
- The proper or accurate point of view or the ability to see it; objectivity: try to get some perspective on your troubles.
- (Art Terms) the theory or art of suggesting three dimensions on a two-dimensional surface, in order to recreate the appearance and spatial relationships that objects or a scene in recession present to the eye
- The appearance of objects, buildings, etc., relative to each other, as determined by their distance from the viewer, or the effects of this distance on their appearance
- A view over some distance in space or time; vista; prospect
- (Art Terms) a picture showing perspective
Perception is an act and perspective is a way of regarding. It is a symbiotic relationship between the two that relies on each other. It is a process that we go through many times a day. One begets the other; you have to make a perception to have a perspective. It works in concordance with an expectation based in faith or fear to determine the outcome. So you see in the example above the person had the perception that the jogger had all the physical attributes they desired but the perspective changed when they determined the social skills did not match or meet the expectations they desired.
What a complicated mind we have and it becomes glaringly apparent the importance of knowing and identifying how it works in order to achieve and grow.
I believe the source of many issues in society can be traced through the inability of individuals to understand their emotions and have the emotional intelligence to deal with them in a constructive way. All you have to do is look at the young stars in Hollywood today. They are catered to from every angle and fail to grasp the minute details of emotional control, and then they wonder why is this happening to me!
