Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Do You Understand the Power of Perception - Winners Do?

By Ray Stendall

Would you like to discover why the intellectual factor of perception is critical to success?

Successful people understand how important perception is in everything they do. People who consistently fail never seem to realize that the way they perceive the world has a profound impact on their lives. What they think about, what they feel and ultimately the actions they take or do not take are based on perception. Are you someone who is optimistic and sees the glass half full or someone who is pessimistic and always seems to find fault with everything around you? What Is Perception?

Perception is one of our intellectual factors that governs how we view the world. Based on our perception of the world around us can we make decisions about where we want to go and who we want to be. Doesn't it seem logical that if perception is the beginning of thought formulation than it deserves some attention?

How can I use the intellectual factor of perception?

You were born perfect. Your intellectual factor of perception when you were a baby was incredible. You used your five senses: sight, smell, taste, hearing, and touch to observe the world around you. As you matured you started to form beliefs that shaped your perceptions. For example, if a child went to the gas station with his father and noticed the price of gas was five dollars a gallon he would see this information, but not have a special belief associated with it. The father on the other hand might view this price of gas as a serious problem. Based on the father's frame of reference he might perceive that the price of gas directly relates to his disposable income. Is it a fact or is this a belief that the price of gas is a major contributor to someone's disposable income?

Another way to perceive the same situation is that the price of gas has gone up and therefore costs have gone up. Therefore I better get more creative to serve more people so I can earn more money to have an even better lifestyle.

Another interpretation might be gee the price of gas is going up maybe I should buy an call option on crude oil. You can either respond or react to the world around you. A response implies the act of thinking and looking for the good in the situation while simply reaction implies no thinking and often complaining.

How Do You Perceive Life?

Are you one of those individuals who always seems to find the positive side of any situation? Do you look for the good in people or do you pick apart all of their faults? Are you essentially a happy person or are you generally depressed? Perhaps somewhere in between? Do you think there is room for improvement to be happier and more in control of your emotions? All of these questions have one thing in common - your perceptions cloud everything around you.

Make up your mind to change the way you perceive things for a happier and healthier life.

I believe you're reading this article because you really do want to be happier, healthier and wealthier. These are the basic factors that we can consider in terms of getting really great results in life. If this is you, and if you are serious, I challenge you to become hyperaware of how you perceive everything around you. Stop complaining to people and to yourself when things do not go well. Have the strength to be able to keep a positive mental attitude during difficult times and look for the good in a bad situation. Ask yourself what is the alternative? If you have a bad situation on your hands and you look for what's bad about the situation how can this lead to any good? Unless you're one of those strange people who enjoy wallowing in misery this is not a recipe for a successful life.

The intellectual factor of perception is a very important ingredient to building awareness and knowledge. Successful people understand this and choose to be very cognizant of how they perceive things. I encourage you to be optimistic and to realize that there are many ways to look at a situation. What looks to you to be an obvious solution from another angle might appear completely different. Focus at looking at issues from multiple vantage points and I guarantee you'll get better results.

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