It's probably fair to say that most humans have nipples; though, there may be a few unfortunate souls who are nippleless, I'm not clear on that that fact.
The same could be said for the personality trait of perception, most people have it and have used it throughout the course of their lives. I believe it's not just a personality trait though, something intrinsic, it's a skill because one can affect one's perception, hone and change it and make it work in better ways. Most do not though, however time and experiences often alter one's perceptions so that's something at least.
Looks like a nipple - Must be a nipple
Nope, that's wrong. Things aren't always what they at first appear to be and quite often a person's perception is completely incorrect; often that's to the person's detriment and it can work to the detriment of others also. We're all exposed to other people's perceptions (whether they're right or wrong) and we certainly form our own however I believe there's not a lot of value in simply deferring to that perception; one must delve a little deeper.
I recently won worked really hard to secure a client on behalf of my organisation, one who is going to prove incredibly lucrative for the organisation and for myself of course. It wasn't easy as I had to battle against the perception the customer had of my organisation through past (bad) experiences and that of my organisation who's perception of the customer was equally negative. I'm not talking about individuals here, I mean organisation to organisation, however it was people who were allowing perceptions to get in the way of progression.
I was told by my organisation many times, forget about that company, they're all a bunch of fucken drifters, meaning that there was little point in pursuing the business...I didn't listen.
I was also told by the customer all the negative things about my organisation, the reasons why they will never do business with us again. Did I listen? Fuck yeah I listened!
It was great because they were laying out the roadmap I needed to follow, the speed humps I needed to remove, to get the business secured. I listened, built rapport, layers of value and a good personal relationship, represented my organisation professionally, addressed each roadblock as it came and slowly began flattening out the speed humps on the road to...a fucken lucrative contract that I will get paid a lot of money for!
Had I allowed the perception each organisation had of the other, a perception based on little true fact and more about personal ego and stubbornness, I'd not have secured the contract - My organisation would have not benefitted from the business and the customer from our services. So nope...just because something looks like a nipple it doesn't mean it is a nipple; perceptions can be wrong.
I had to do a lot of work on this one, a lot of travel, fucken video link-up meetings (which I hate), and months of research, planning, complex spreadsheets and paperwork...Worth it? Yeah it was worth it from a personal satisfaction perspective, for my career due to having put it together in the way I did and from a remunerative perspective also; come pay day I'll be thanking myself for the work I did.
Perception can work for or against a person and it's not an easy trait to sum up in a few words as there's so many variables however I believe each of us should spend some time thinking about our own and how simply defaulting to it without further investigation can negatively affect us. Sure, there's times when one's immediate perception is correct although it's not always the case so it may be wise to apply some caution.
How has your perception positively or negatively effected your life personally or professionally? Have you ever found yourself thinking about ways in which you can temper it and scratch the surface a little more to see things with better clarity? Feel free to comment below if you'd like to.
Design and create your ideal life, tomorrow isn't promised - galenkp
[Original and AI free]
Image(s) in this post are my own