I know many of you have heard the old saying, “Perception is reality.” Once a person’s mind has seen something or someone perform the same task or function repeatedly, it must be the norm. In life we tend to do a lot of things routinely, but what if I told you, in fact, perception is not reality. It is simply just that - perception.
Perception is the mind's way of using our five senses. Sight, touch, taste, smell, and hearing. To give you a breakdown of the things around us, our senses give us the ability to touch fire and know whether it is hot; or, to smell food cooking and perceive it to taste good by its aroma. The brain is one of the most powerful and marvelous specimens in the universe.
It can read and decode just about anything, as long as the fisrt and lsat ltters are in the rihgt spot.
But, it can be fooled by a simple sleight of hand magic trick. Which reminds me of another old saying, "Believe none of what you hear and half of what you see."
The sad thing? A majority of the time, people give false perceptions of themselves. They act very confident or boastful to hide the fact they are very humble and shy. Perception is also relationship based; oftentimes, people make perceptions and assumptions of others on whether they like them or not. Meaning, if you are friends with an a--hole, you tend to defend him against negative perceptions. You believe all the negative when it is someone you don't like.
If you smell good everyday, and one day you forget to put on deodorant and your arms stink-- from that moment on, you'll be perceived as the guy whose arms stink. Even though in reality, you smell great everyday! In the words of Charlemagne tha God...
"Who wants to hear the truth when the lie is more entertaining?"
Truth be told, our perceptions of others are really a reflection of ourselves. Since we know our own tendencies and how we react and respond in certain situations, we tend to think others would respond the same way. We place them in a box.
When it comes to reality, it requires no backup or explanation. All the facts are there. Reality has a lifetime of evidence while perceptions are generally formed after a few meetings or encounters.
Who we truly are and who we are perceived to be will be a blurred line forever.
As people and creatures of habit and sight, we will always choose to believe what appears to be true over what actually is. If someone dresses nice or has a nice car, the perception is that he or she must have some money; but, if they dress meager or drive a bucket, then they most certainly have to be poor. Both things could be correct, but both could also be false; in fact, more times than not, this is incorrect.
Some white Americans think Blacks are thugs and criminals; some Black Americans think whites who are Trump supporters are racist. Although one may try to argue a point for either side, they are perceptions. In reality, there are good, decent people of all ethnic backgrounds. And that doesn't need validation from anyone, because unlike perception, reality can stand alone, speak for itself, and show its worth.
We can't change people's perception of us, but we can't allow their judgment to change our reality.
If you have 200 one dollar bills, and I have two 100 dollar bills, perception would lead one to believe you got a pocket full of money, when in fact, we both have the same amount of money. Most people will never see this matter the same. To some-- perception is reality. To me-- well, perception is just perception.
I say all this to say--
Never let what someone else perceives alter nor deter what you believe. Stay woke. Stay focused. Stay true!
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