Hey kids,
This is an important life lesson.
Perception is what you think someone means when they say or do something. Say, for example, I tell you we are going to breakfast on Saturday morning. There are several things that could mean.
1. You could think that just you and I are going. I could mean everyone is going.
2. I could mean breakfast, like actually in the morning, and you could think it is when you finally roll out of bed.
3. You could read into that where we are going to eat.
4. You could assume how we are going to get there.
5. You could assume you will not have to wash dishes for your food.
There are plenty of other things you will perceive from that one statement. Our perceptions are based on our experiences. For instance, when you say mom always or mom never…that is not true. No one always does anything. What you mean is that in your opinion it happened enough that you think it is likely to happen again. For example, you have never had to wash dishes when you went out to eat for your meal….yet Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
… so it is reasonable to think that you will not have to do that in the future.
Where perception gets you in trouble is when you judge people’s actions without understanding their intentions or why
1. Mom works too much. What you don’t understand is why she does it. If you understood then you would thank her instead of being mad about it.
2. He lied to me. Yes, lying is wrong, but why he did it is important.
3. She didn’t clean her room. Yes, that’s obvious. But why didn’t she?
Why gives you important information. Why is especially important with people you love. People who love you don’t tend to try to hurt you. When they do hurt you it is usually accidental or they didn’t know how important something is to you or they were venting or they felt bad about themselves or something else.
One lesson I learned long ago is that there are 3 sides to every story. There is your side. There is my side. Then there is the truth. The truth is always somewhere in the middle …and that is because no two people perceive things the exact same.
