Perceptions

This will not be a long drawn out piece. Rather I hope to make this short and sweet, giving you something to meditate on and think about as you go through your days.

Perceptions are weird. They are both enlightening and blinding depending upon how you utilize them. Can you truly ever get an objective truth about what kind of person you are?

The Self

Viewing life and the interactions we have through our own eyes can't always be trusted as we have certain lenses we view the world through. So we, ourselves, cannot be 100% trusted 100% of the time.

The Friends and Loved Ones

Our friends and loved ones want to see us succeed. They want to see us happy and oftentimes they might, through good intention, allow the truth to be slightly exaggerated in our favor. If they want to see us do good, succeed and be happy, then their motives, while good, are as flawed as our own. They cannot be 100% trusted 100% of the time.

The Enemies and Rivals

These people often want to see us fail and to eat crow. Their intentions are decidedly malicious or unscrupulous. So when they speak to us or about us, it is all but certain that they cannot be 100% trusted 100% of the time.

The Acquaintances

These people do not pay enough attention to you or your life to have any sort of valid opinion one way or the other. It's not that they're malicious or lovestruck by you, but rather, they just don't have the data or the energy to care. So again, they cannot be 100% trusted 100% of the time.

The Point

This is why life is so odd. Nobody, not even yourself can be 100% trusted 100% of the time.

Is that to say what's the point? To hope for a giant meteor to come crashing into the massive super volcano underneath Yellowstone and end all humanity?

No. It is to say, examine closely what you see, say, and do. To examine closely how others perceive what you see, say and do.

I encourage you all to keep this in the back of your mind. Remember that your enemies are probably not as evil as you make them out to be, your friends are not as good, and you're not as big of a saint as you believe yourself to be.

Meditate on this. Don't rush to be too critical of yourself or of others, but rather try as you might to use it as an objective lens to filter your thoughts, actions and ultimately your overall strategic goals for your life. We have so many stimuli coming into our brains that the rush and rush of life often clutters our perspective and ruins our relationships due to our faulty perception. For instance, if you misinterpret what you see, if your perception is faulty, say while driving a car, are you not more prone to get into an accident? To err in your driving skills because of your faulty perception? So too in life we demand that our brains, despite taking in the most stimuli that any human has had in history up until this point, function error free. We're redlining our minds and we don't even realize it. Of course our perceptions will be flawed. Of course we'll speak in error, judgement, or with rudeness. Take the time to take a break and examine your day. Examine your efforts, reactions and intentions, honestly.

Who do you want to be? How do you want to be remembered? What do you want your friends, children and enemies to say about you? Are you honorable? Do you keep your word? These are just a few examples of things to think on when meditating on these perceptions.