We have often heard the phrase “perception is reality”. None of us see the world as it actually is. No. In fact, we see the world as we actually are. We are full of our own biases and, quite frankly, sometimes we get stuck in those biases believing that they are absolute truth. There is an incredible book called “The Undoing Project” by Michale Lewis that talks about a friendship between two men, two psychologists, who helped the world change it’s mind about our own biases.
I recently wrote a poem that speaks to this truth about perception not being reality.
See the world as real?
Impossible.
But see it only as you are.
The world you see is the person you are.
Don’t like the world you see?
Change who you are.
The dark world I saw was because of who I was.
The light world I see is because of who I became.
I do not see the world as it is,
instead I see the world as I am.
So I changed who I am.
There are very few absolute truths on Earth, particularly as it relates to politics, religion, values and discerning wrong from right. I propose that phrase “your perception is reality” be changed to “your perception is YOUR reality”. I don’t think this is a new concept but a simple one that could easily help us see how easy it is to change our perceived reality.
The description of “The Undoing Project” by Michale Lewis is as follows:
“Forty years ago, Israeli psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky wrote a series of breathtakingly original studies undoing our assumptions about the decision-making process. Their papers showed the ways in which the human mind erred, systematically, when forced to make judgments in uncertain situations. Their work created the field of behavioral economics, revolutionized Big Data studies, advanced evidence-based medicine, led to a new approach to government regulation, and made much of Michael Lewis’s own work possible. Kahneman and Tversky are more responsible than anybody for the powerful trend to mistrust human intuition and defer to algorithms.
“The Undoing Project is about a compelling collaboration between two men who have the dimensions of great literary figures. They became heroes in the university and on the battlefield—both had important careers in the Israeli military—and their research was deeply linked to their extraordinary life experiences. Amos Tversky was a brilliant, self-confident warrior and extrovert, the center of rapt attention in any room; Kahneman, a fugitive from the Nazis in his childhood, was an introvert whose questing self-doubt was the seedbed of his ideas. They became one of the greatest partnerships in the history of science, working together so closely that they couldn’t remember whose brain originated which ideas, or who should claim credit. They flipped a coin to decide the lead authorship on the first paper they wrote, and simply alternated thereafter.
“This story about the workings of the human mind is explored through the personalities of two fascinating individuals so fundamentally different from each other that they seem unlikely friends or colleagues. In the process they may well have changed, for good, mankind’s view of its own mind.”
What is pervasive throughout the book is how easily we can be deceived by our own way of seeing the world. As a coach, I strongly encourage you to find new ways of looking at things, especially when times seem particularly tough or frustrating or hopeless.
Christopher is the CEO and Founder of Change My Life Coaching — a fast growing whole-life coaching company, and the only one of it’s kind. He is also the author of “Go Beyond Passion: Discover Your Dream Job”. Christopher spent 15+ years working in the corporate world with a plethora of industries and companies. His focus was primarily in planning, strategy, and leadership of change management and communication. Christopher is a Certified Master Coach Practitioner (CMCP), trainer and facilitator, and a passionate public speaker who truly cares about the success of each and every single person he comes into contact with. You can reach him at [email protected].
