Perception

Changes in our lives are important and cannot be avoided. We normally do not like them, they trigger us to take action. There are many simple examples how we react to changes. If temperature starts raising we notice that. If light levels or sound levels suddenly change we react. If something in our view suddenly moves we look at it before we know. The reason is that when we lived in trees we needed those triggers in order to survive.

Changes affect us in the following way: If something changes for the better we are happy. If it changes for the worst we dislike. Once better or worse we do not pay attention to it anymore. We get used to it. Hence only the CHANGES give a stimulus to our mood, to our lives. Please understand the importance of changes to the way you are, the way you think and the way to take decisions, both personal and professional.

PERCEPTION

Whatever we do in live is mainly driven by perceptions. Marketers now that very well. We hardly take the time to verify and we believe what we perceive. The media use that continuously. We assume a lot and that is actually dangerous:

News shows one side of the story: the accident with the aircraft. People get afraid of flying (at least in my circles) The media will NOT TELL US how many aircrafts landed safely. They will not tell us about all the peaceful muslims on earth after a car bomb kills an American soldier in Afghanistan etc. It is worth the effort to THINK at least a few minutes when your start digesting information.

CHANGES IN PERCEPTIONS

We are triggered by changes. You cannot always manage changes yourself. Or can you? Yes you can because a large part of those changes are changes in PERCEPTIONS. We are triggered how we feel about something by CHANGES IN PERCEPTIONS:

For those who love mathematics:

U = d(Perception)/dt ,

where U is the quality of the feeling that was triggered. It can be positive or negative.

Once you understand that, YOU yourself can change your perceptions and consequently what to do with it:

– look at the flip side of a story, what was NOT TOLD???

– if you have a bad moment start to think that tomorrow probably will be better and if tomorrow arrives ENJOY that improvement.

– in conflicts with other people try to understand that a large part of the conflict is probably based on perceptions. Find out what really goes on instead of assuming.

-ask yourself constantly, am I ASSUMING that or do I know the facts? You will be surprised of the outcome if you are honest to yourself.

– in communicating with others try to find out how they perceive your message and if it changes their old perception, great sales tool.

Five ways of improving your quality of life, personally and professionally. It improves your decision-making.

Think about it and you will find that there are many more ways of changing your perception and how it influences your decision making.