A shoe company executive is exploring new market potential in a developing nation. Upon arrival he discovers that almost all of the indigenous population walks bare footed. “There’s no potential in this country!” he exclaims and leaves disappointed.
A few years later a different company executive, exploring the market potential for shoes, arrives at the same developing country. He notices that almost everyone is barefooted. “I can’t get over the potential for shoe sales in this country. It is almost overwhelming,” he exclaims.
Your Reality (Really)
Two different people with completely opposite reactions to the exact same situation. Which one is correct?
They both are. We are our perceptions and our perceptions are our reality. Our own unique reality. As you probably realize, the shoe company executive who saw the barefooted people and saw no potential for business is correct. For him, there would be no business. For the other shoe company executive the potential for business was overwhelming.
What would it take for you to look at your reality, whatever your reality is, in a completely opposite direction?
How would you look at your life, your friends, your work? What about the last disagreement you had with your spouse, your boss, your child?
(Reality) Check Please!
Without a good reality check we get locked into our own worldview with our own set of routines and familiarities. We are locked and lose sight of different viewpoints.
There is a danger in holding a self-centered worldview. That danger is the loss of possibilities and the death of creativity.
Recalibrating your view can help you solve problems, win arguments, and even be happier. Remembering that your interpretation of something is merely that, your interpretation, and not the only interpretation.
“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”
― Oscar Wilde
Are you looking at the stars or the gutter?