My view of situations and people is something that I have been thinking long and hard about. Since I have so many thoughts about the topic of perception, I believe that it could take several sessions for me to write about all the thoughts that I have, but I am going to try and wrap it up in one session. The thoughts that I have about this topic is a little conflicting. I have a conflict because perception is different for everyone and that person’s perception may not be correct. I believe that we encounter issues when we operate based solely on our perception of how things and people are.
Have you ever looked out the window and noticed that the sun was shining, so you got dressed for a warm day, only to step outside and it is freezing? Our perception was off because we based our expectation of nice warm weather on the fact that the sun was shining. The bright shiny sun caused us to expect or assume that it would be warm outside, which could be entirely untrue, your perception of the sun and the expectation of the weather being warm could be wrong. This could also be the case with how we view other situations and people. Sometimes we look at a situation based on our perception and think that we know all about what happened and why something happened, we sum up situations without ever getting all the facts, the facts that are required for us to be accurate about what really happened. In the example of the sun, we could have checked the weather forecast to get a better idea of the expected temperature.
It is unfortunate but we do the same thing when it comes to people. Have you ever had a conversation about someone that you didn’t know but based on the things that your friend or associate told you about the person, you come to expect a certain behavior from them? You think that you know a person that is a stranger to you, based on what someone told you. The problem comes in when the perception about you is negative and untrue. I know this happens more often than it should. When this happens, I wonder who is to blame, Is the person that is sharing their perception about another person at fault or is the person that is listening, believes it and then shares it with someone else at fault. In my attempt to get a better understanding about this question I decided to I ask a few people to get their thoughts about who they believed was at fault in that situation. You can probably guess that I got varying responses to the question. There is probably no right or wrong answer to the question because perception is what one person feels or how they view the actions of a person. Their perception could be based on their perceived interactions with the individual, which is understandable. I do however have a problem with the sharing of a negative perception about a person when it is done with malice, with the hopes of turning other people opinion of that person into a negative one. It is important for you to get to know people for yourself.
However, if someone perceives you in a positive way, I don’t believe that many people would have an issue with the sharing of a positive perception of them. It is easy to handle a positive perception, everyone likes to be thought highly of. It is a good feeling to know that others have a more positive view of you, sometimes their view can be more positive than you have of yourself. There are many times that I have to readjust my thoughts about a situation or a person. I have found that a good question to ask myself is why this person is telling me these details about someone else, what are they expecting from me. I have decided that it is a good idea to not form an opinion about another person without first getting to know them for myself. I Will, Will You?
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