The Impact of Perception... can be funny
"Perception is Everything."
If you don't realize this yet, you should, beginning now.
There's a plethora of examples I could give to support this statement, however typing them out will seem redundant since this is already one of my core beliefs/perceptions.
But here are a few anyhow...
Karen Carpenter, a talented singer and drummer, died at the age of 32 in the 80's due to complications from anorexia. She perceived herself as fat. It didn't matter that she was very thin (google her pic), in her mind's eye she perceived herself as fat, therefore deprived herself of food and nutrition to the point it cost her her own life.
Jim Carrey, a talented actor and comedian, was an unknown, struggling artist living in a trailer park with a 'bunch of siblings' in the 80's. He wrote himself a check for $10 million in 1987, dating it November 1995. In 94' he made the first "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective" movie and did go on to make $10 million dollars, and then some. Jim perceived that he was and would be a success. And so he was and is.
"Think like a queen. A queen is not afraid to fail. Failure is another steppingstone to greatness," who said it?
No other than the one, the only, Oprah Winfrey... who grew up in poverty and endured sexual abuse and neglect as a young lady. But Oprah didn't perceive herself as a victim, she perceived herself as strong, smart, capable of greatness... and so she was, so she is.
We could go on and on but, we won't. Think of some example on your own... people you know personally.
Know anyone who thinks he's the best thing since sliced bread? And you're thinking, "Whatever dude, not buying it!" then you find yourself later wondering, "But how is this silly guy so successful? How does he have this fine chic on his arm? Do people really buy into his act, like he's someone important?!"
The answer to that question is, yes. People do buy into it, because he buys into it. His perception is his reality.
True for all of us, to a degree.
I have to share a couple of funny, powerful 'perception is everything' moments from my own life:
Winter 2006 I was at a friend's house with a group of pals. Cesar (owner of house) brought out a nice, big, glass bottle of tequila to the living room where we were all sitting, talking, laughing. He had a shot glass in hand, the bottle and explained this was a very potent, high-alcohol-content tequila, and said, let's take shots! I think I was the only girl in the group at that moment and the guys, one by one, took a shot of the tequila, each one wincing, coughing, brrr-ing, after the shot.
Each of them said, "Dios, esta super fuerte!" "Ahh, too strong!"
It came to my turn. I was scared to take a shot. I was dreading the taste and burning sensation because of the friends' reactions. I was nervous. I took the shot. It was awful, burning, I coughed and jumped up, my face red, "Saying, damn that's strong tequila!"
It was strong... strong water! It was water! But to me, it was some powerful tequila! I swear to this day, I couldn't believe it was water! They had played a (perception) joke on me and they were all shocked at how well it worked!
Winter 2013 (present) I've always weighed around 112. I do not want to lose weight, ever. I'm thin, and comfortable, as is, and wouldn't want to lose even one pound. About 6 months ago I started going to Crunch Gym (I've always worked out). There's a scale in the locker room and for months I never even stepped on it. One day I did and was stunned to see I weighed 103. "What's going on? I've lost 10 lbs? This is not good," I thought to myself.
I told my boyfriend about it. I asked the vet at work if I could have picked up a parasite (hook, round or tape worm) from a dog. I went on to try to eat more and even bought those yucky ensure drinks to 'ensure' I was getting enough calories.
I continued to weigh myself at the gym and in fact lost weight- I got down to 101.
Last week I suffered from chronic on and off voice loss so, I went to the doctor (something I rarely do). At the doctor, they weighed me... I weighed 111! I weighed 111! I was so happy! I exclaimed, in my hoarse voice, "Those assholes at the gym have been messing with the scale to make people feel good! That's messed up!"
So, I hadn't lost weight. But in my mind's eye, my clothes had become looser, I looked gaunt, I thought I might have cancer for God's sake! But no, my perception was fooling me because of a faulty scale.
-Now that we've payed respect to the power of perception, let's contemplate on how powerful and amazing it would be to manipulate our perception for the benefit of ourselves and our world.
We will do that in the next blog... this one's already too long!
I will leave you with one more famous quote:
"A man is but the product of his thoughts, what he thinks, he becomes." Gandhi. ~Cheers.
If you don't realize this yet, you should, beginning now.
There's a plethora of examples I could give to support this statement, however typing them out will seem redundant since this is already one of my core beliefs/perceptions.
But here are a few anyhow...
Karen Carpenter, a talented singer and drummer, died at the age of 32 in the 80's due to complications from anorexia. She perceived herself as fat. It didn't matter that she was very thin (google her pic), in her mind's eye she perceived herself as fat, therefore deprived herself of food and nutrition to the point it cost her her own life.
Jim Carrey, a talented actor and comedian, was an unknown, struggling artist living in a trailer park with a 'bunch of siblings' in the 80's. He wrote himself a check for $10 million in 1987, dating it November 1995. In 94' he made the first "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective" movie and did go on to make $10 million dollars, and then some. Jim perceived that he was and would be a success. And so he was and is.
"Think like a queen. A queen is not afraid to fail. Failure is another steppingstone to greatness," who said it?
No other than the one, the only, Oprah Winfrey... who grew up in poverty and endured sexual abuse and neglect as a young lady. But Oprah didn't perceive herself as a victim, she perceived herself as strong, smart, capable of greatness... and so she was, so she is.
We could go on and on but, we won't. Think of some example on your own... people you know personally.
Know anyone who thinks he's the best thing since sliced bread? And you're thinking, "Whatever dude, not buying it!" then you find yourself later wondering, "But how is this silly guy so successful? How does he have this fine chic on his arm? Do people really buy into his act, like he's someone important?!"
The answer to that question is, yes. People do buy into it, because he buys into it. His perception is his reality.
True for all of us, to a degree.
I have to share a couple of funny, powerful 'perception is everything' moments from my own life:
Winter 2006 I was at a friend's house with a group of pals. Cesar (owner of house) brought out a nice, big, glass bottle of tequila to the living room where we were all sitting, talking, laughing. He had a shot glass in hand, the bottle and explained this was a very potent, high-alcohol-content tequila, and said, let's take shots! I think I was the only girl in the group at that moment and the guys, one by one, took a shot of the tequila, each one wincing, coughing, brrr-ing, after the shot.
Each of them said, "Dios, esta super fuerte!" "Ahh, too strong!"
It came to my turn. I was scared to take a shot. I was dreading the taste and burning sensation because of the friends' reactions. I was nervous. I took the shot. It was awful, burning, I coughed and jumped up, my face red, "Saying, damn that's strong tequila!"
It was strong... strong water! It was water! But to me, it was some powerful tequila! I swear to this day, I couldn't believe it was water! They had played a (perception) joke on me and they were all shocked at how well it worked!
Winter 2013 (present) I've always weighed around 112. I do not want to lose weight, ever. I'm thin, and comfortable, as is, and wouldn't want to lose even one pound. About 6 months ago I started going to Crunch Gym (I've always worked out). There's a scale in the locker room and for months I never even stepped on it. One day I did and was stunned to see I weighed 103. "What's going on? I've lost 10 lbs? This is not good," I thought to myself.
I told my boyfriend about it. I asked the vet at work if I could have picked up a parasite (hook, round or tape worm) from a dog. I went on to try to eat more and even bought those yucky ensure drinks to 'ensure' I was getting enough calories.
I continued to weigh myself at the gym and in fact lost weight- I got down to 101.
Last week I suffered from chronic on and off voice loss so, I went to the doctor (something I rarely do). At the doctor, they weighed me... I weighed 111! I weighed 111! I was so happy! I exclaimed, in my hoarse voice, "Those assholes at the gym have been messing with the scale to make people feel good! That's messed up!"
So, I hadn't lost weight. But in my mind's eye, my clothes had become looser, I looked gaunt, I thought I might have cancer for God's sake! But no, my perception was fooling me because of a faulty scale.
-Now that we've payed respect to the power of perception, let's contemplate on how powerful and amazing it would be to manipulate our perception for the benefit of ourselves and our world.
We will do that in the next blog... this one's already too long!
I will leave you with one more famous quote:
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