Actually, this is true of everyone. We all see and react and interrelated with the world we live in through the filter called – Me. Logically one could ask how else could we respond? The following question could be – is that so bad? The answer to the last question is – it depends. But before responding to this, you need a clear understanding of what the ‘ Me filter’ is.
I would suggest that our filter is a combination of our learnings, preferences that have been the result of our experience, what we have learned whether by book, trial and error, and/or ‘life defining’ moments and our subsequent personal application. All of those forces determine how we respond to whatever stimuli is presented. Often though, we fall back on experience as our primary filter – consciously and not. None of what I’ve said is condemning nor critical it just is our way of reacting or responding by ordering our world.
I can’t speak for you but I find myself at life changing points of decisions every so often. These are the decisions I KNOW are life changing. Sometimes I recognize them at the moment and sometimes it’s only after the fact that I can see the life change. There is a whole grist of decisions that occur but I’m only aware after the fact that they did have a significant and life changing impact. As to the ‘speed’ of decision-making, sometimes I had a bit of cogitating time and sometimes the decisions were ‘on the fly’.
My point in all of this discussion is to help us all recognize that what we do and say IS always through the filter of who we are. And yes, that isn’t earth-shattering news, ‘everyone knows that’. True. But I’d like to suggest that if this was more of a conscious, critical thinking mindset that we’d all be more sensitive.
If you accept that you speak and act from this foundation and how that foundation was built – you’d have to do the same for the other person. Whether or not you agree isn’t as much the point as accepting that what standard you apply to yourself, the other person is applying theirs. Filters are value-less. They are, however, powerful forces.
I would suggest that our filter is a combination of our learnings, preferences that have been the result of our experience, what we have learned whether by book, trial and error, and/or ‘life defining’ moments and our subsequent personal application. All of those forces determine how we respond to whatever stimuli is presented. Often though, we fall back on experience as our primary filter – consciously and not. None of what I’ve said is condemning nor critical it just is our way of reacting or responding by ordering our world.
I can’t speak for you but I find myself at life changing points of decisions every so often. These are the decisions I KNOW are life changing. Sometimes I recognize them at the moment and sometimes it’s only after the fact that I can see the life change. There is a whole grist of decisions that occur but I’m only aware after the fact that they did have a significant and life changing impact. As to the ‘speed’ of decision-making, sometimes I had a bit of cogitating time and sometimes the decisions were ‘on the fly’.
My point in all of this discussion is to help us all recognize that what we do and say IS always through the filter of who we are. And yes, that isn’t earth-shattering news, ‘everyone knows that’. True. But I’d like to suggest that if this was more of a conscious, critical thinking mindset that we’d all be more sensitive.
If you accept that you speak and act from this foundation and how that foundation was built – you’d have to do the same for the other person. Whether or not you agree isn’t as much the point as accepting that what standard you apply to yourself, the other person is applying theirs. Filters are value-less. They are, however, powerful forces.
