How Much of Reality is Perception?

It’s that time again… yes, another post from my friend and colleague, Mark Murphy.  As a facilitator of 7 Habits for many years, Mark brings great insight today about our paradigms and how that affects our reality.  Enjoy!

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I recently watched a TED clip (above) by Shawn Achor, author of the book “The Happy Secret to Better Work”.  He is the CEO of Good Think Inc. and studies the science of “Positive Psychology”.  In economics and statistics, one of the first things taught is how to eliminate data that falls outside of the average, how to eliminate the outliers to achieve the average.  But if you’re studying potential, creativity, energy or productivity, it’s imperative to escape what he calls the “Cult of the Average” in science. When asked the question “How fast can a child learn how to read in a classroom?”, science immediately changes the question to “How fast does the average child learn to read in the classroom?”  Then the class is tailored to the average.

“Positive Psychology” studies the physical and psychological implications of the premise that if we focus on what is merely average, we will remain merely average. Instead of automatically deleting the outlier in science, Shawn Achor believes we should study that outlier and ask “why”, not just to move people up to the average, but to move the entire average up.

The news constantly bombards us with stories of corruption, war, crime and sickness until our brain begins to believe that this ratio of negative to positive information is the norm. “It’s not necessarily reality that shapes us, but the lens through which your brain views the world that shapes your reality.  If we can change the lens, we can change not only our happiness, but every single business and educational outcome at the same time.”

In Victor Frankl’s autobiography, Man’s Search for Meaning, he recounts his horrific experiences as a Jewish Austrian psychiatrist held prisoner in the concentration camps of Nazi Germany.  He says that ultimately it wasn’t physical strength or endurance that made the difference between those that survived and those that didn’t.  Those that survived had a vision of some greater purpose yet to be fulfilled in their own lives.  It was that deep inner sense of purpose and mission that often determined the difference between life and death.

I love Marianne Williamson’s book A Discourse on Miracles.  In it, she states that it’s not what happens to us in life that determines our happiness, but rather how we choose to respond to what happens to us that determines our happiness.  I’ve observed that very premise often in my own life.  I know people who have been handed everything in life that they could ever want and are still miserable people.  I’ve also known people who seem to endure trial after trial in life and yet are still very upbeat, happy people. 

Stephen R. Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, says it this way: “No one sees the world as it is…we all see the world as we are.”  Every individual has a lens of beliefs  and experiences (paradigms) that we use to interpret the world around us. 

If we desire to change our lives we can simply work on our behaviors.  But if we want that change to be enduring, lasting and meaningful we need to change our beliefs.  If you listen to Shawn Achor, there seems to be a growing body of science that backs that up.

- Mark Murphy, FranklinCovey Consultant             

Copyright © 2012 - Mark Murphy

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Wishing you a Happy Easter Weekend!

- John Vakidis