Which of the two center circles above is smaller, the left or the right? They’re actually both the same size.
The above may be familiar to those who have taken a psychology class. I still think it’s a great representation of perspective.
What exactly is perspective, or perception, or world view? It’s how you see things. The thing about your perception is that it alters what you’re actually looking at. Kind of like how a magician cuts a lady in half, your perception makes two balls that are the same size look like different sizes. That’s powerful. Altering isn’t bad, though. Perception is what allows us to do things that are necessary in life like process information more quickly and make quick decisions and understand complicated stuff.
Where perception is really powerful, though, is when you become aware of it. When you change it.
- Cancer patients suffer from cancer but they also suffer from war analogies. These war analogies, that perception of battle, actually hurt the patient.
- Customers aren’t targets, they’re people. There is a person just like you on the other side of the counter, or phone, or e-mail.
- Dreams are something you wish would happen. Goals are something you can make happen. You can have goals instead of dreams.
- Your company isn’t an entity. It’s an organization- a group of people. Those people aren’t just people. They’re humans like you and me and they make mistakes sometimes. It’s OK to act like what you’re made of.
What’s a perspective that you can change? My recent one is for every thing a company does, there has got to be a path less traveled (and potentially a reason, whether it be tradition or fear).