There is nothing good or bad but perception makes it so.
Nearly a month ago I referenced a favorite book of mine titled “Beyond Illusions” The Magic of Positive Perception authored by Brad Barton. I said that day that I would share more about the book later. It’s now later! 
Brad is a fellow speaker, a master magician, gifted storyteller, bee keeper, and good friend. Nearly 2 years ago he asked if I would read the draft of this book and offer feedback on it. My feedback was, print it and sell me the first 200 copies so I can give them away to all my clients. I use it as a tool to help create awareness, inspire ownership and personal accountability in individuals and teams. I often read directly from Beyond Illusions during many of my keynotes and training sessions… typically that is the portion of my programs where I get the biggest laughs and ah ha moments. And there have been occasions where after reading just 2 pages from his book at my sessions…his book outsold mine afterwards!
It’s a wonderful book and for the next week, perhaps two… the content of the T4D “Thought 4 the Day” will be pulled from it’s wonderful pages. I have asked and Brad has agreed to make the book available for purchase at http://www.morebetterbooks.com/.
The followingt story from the book… will give you a great feeling for the style and content. (FUN STUFF)
A Weighty Matter - The Art of Guided Perception
I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened. — Mark Twain
Have you ever created disaster out of nothing but perception? Ever created a ‘reality’ that wasn’t ‘real’ even though your ‘facts’ were just as ‘true’ as your interpretation of them - then tried to prove that your disastrous interpretation was true? Confused? Read on…
My young friend, Heidi, went to a department store to buy a specific type of knit uniform pants required for her new job. She tried on the poorly tailored, tight-fitting, polyester pants, stood in front of the three piece mirror and, to her horror, realized the awful pants made her look fat. In the changing room, she grimly considered her options. Heidi really needed her job, and the pants were a sad requirement; so, she reluctantly took the pants to the cashier.
It was mid-December and the store was bustling with Christmas shoppers. In front of the line was an elderly woman asking about a tailored jacket for her granddaughter.
Must be a size 3! Heidi thought, as she watched the sales clerk hold it up admiringly.
Next, two teenagers faced a dilemma about which outfit would look best at their upcoming party and dance recital. Heidi tried to smile at them. They look absolutely anorexic, she thought, as she looked down at the polyester pants she was about to purchase. You’d think they’d make some effort to pick a uniform that looked good on everyone.
The lengthy wait became more difficult as she observed each thin attractive customer, carrying equally beautiful clothes - not ugly ones like the stupid knit pants Heidi was forced to buy. There were three cash registers, but only one clerk, and she looked exhausted, but slim and attractive in a blue, belted, shirt-dress, which accentuated her waist and made her look authoritative and businesslike.
She’s probably the department manager, or at least on her way up the ladder, Heidi thought.
She found herself analyzing every man, woman and child in the store during that twenty minute trek to the check out. They all appeared to possess possibilities Heidi lacked. They seemed more educated, more talented, more attractive, more self-confident and slimmer than Heidi. Finally, there was only one person before her turn to be helped. Heidi’s torment was almost over when it got even worse.
A handsome young man, about her own age, opened another register as the first clerk said, “I’m sorry. It will just be a couple of minutes while Jim gets his register going.” And she locked her drawer and walked away.
Two more minutes? As if that wasn’t enough, she would be served by a handsome young man with dark penetrating eyes and a smile that could sell anything on the floor. Heidi laid the pants over her arm and started fumbling through her purse for her checkbook so the transaction wouldn’t take any longer than necessary. I think I’m going to be sick.
“Did you find what you were looking for?” came the clerk’s friendly, tenor voice.
Suddenly, Heidi saw herself standing in front of that three-way mirror again in the ugly pants. The FAT pants. I’m fat. I’m fat. I’m fat! was all she could think.
The clerk leaned toward her, apologetically, “I am so sorry about your weight.”
Heidi threw the pants at the startled clerk, burst into tears, and ran from the store. Halfway home, still sobbing, she suddenly realized what the sales clerk meant. He was not criticizing her weight; he was sincerely apologizing for her twenty-minute wait!
Have you ever done what Heidi did? Created a disaster out of nothing but misguided perception? Have you ever taken offense at a co-worker’s comment and worked it up in your mind to the level of an in-office Hiroshima? Did you end up feeling embarrassed? Worse, you may have never found out that the offending party was actually innocent and well-intended.
Often, people let such incidents smolder until they fade into the background noise of why they never liked that person in the first place. Have you ever negatively interpreted a comment or a look from your spouse or significant other, and then shot back an emotionally charged reaction and created the very conflict your misguided perception anticipated? Many of our negative experiences and feelings are of our own making. Our perceptions and interpretations powerfully influence our responses and reactions. All too often, they create the very thing - the very reality - we fear out of (drumroll please) absolutely nothing.
You see what amazing wizards we are? We have the power to create our own reality - beautiful or ugly - out of nothing more than perception. The question is, if our perceptions and interpretations can create disaster - or the illusion of disaster - can the same power magically create a new positive reality of beauty, opportunity, or even great humor out of the same circumstance? If you can create your own reality, you can create fortune out of misfortune, opportunity out of failure, possibility out of stagnation, and self- fulfillment out of emptiness. How? By simply looking at it differently.
You can magically change your life by changing how you perceive events and how you see yourself. This is what I call: “The Art of Guided Perception.”
To Read the t4d where I first referenced Bard’s Magical book. Click Here
