Perceptions and Associations
“Every word enfolds knowledge and intent. Our whole lifetime is packaged inside us as imprints triggered by words. Mortals are wrapped in words, the way a spider wraps flies in gossamer. Only, in this case, we imprison ourselves in our own webs.
We must clean our brains of these webs — like we clean the webs out of our house.”
— Deepak Chopra, The Ways of the Wizard
“If you do not like something, change it. If you cannot change it, change the way you think about it.”
— Traditional Wisdom
Our associations determine our behavior, and our behavior determines our results. The meaning we associate with words is extremely important. We must be careful with what words we choose to use whether it’s in a conversation or deciding the best way to advertise, market, or sell a product or a service. The words we use in any situation hold an association in our minds that may not be perceived by others in the specific way we are trying to convey.
This is why creating outstanding advertising is so difficult. People all have slightly different perceptions and associations with words and images. If I say “Christmas,” you may have a negative or positive association of what Christmas means to you. If I show you a picture of Santa Claus and a Christmas tree, you may link that to happy memories and the feeling of joy you’ve felt over the years with your family on Christmas morning. Or you may link that image to the pain of the bad Christmases you had when you didn’t have any gifts under the tree, or to the memory of finding out Santa Claus was actually your parents. The perceptions and associations you have with words and images may differ from those of people around you.
“Begin challenging your own assumptions. Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won’t come in.”
— Alan Alda, Actor
Think of your brain as the windshield of your car. If you never clean it off, it would get very difficult to know what you’re truly looking at, and it would literally be dangerous for you to continue with your perception so obscured. You must not let your lifetime of built-up perceptions and associations of the world around you alter what really is. Assign new meaning to things, and you begin to change your world. Your perceptions shape how you see things, and your beliefs will determine how you act. These two things combined will be the strongest determinants on how your life turns out. And you control them both at all times as well as the life you want to create for yourself. Only when your beliefs and perceptions are bombarded by other people’s do you begin to question your own. “Can I really do this? Am I seeing things wrong? Am I believing in the wrong thing? What if things don’t work out? What if everyone else is right?”
The reason we have all heard that a first impression is so important is primarily because society is very judgmental. People perceive you a certain way and associate you with certain things depending on their first impression.
I’m sure we’ve all been in a situation where we’ve been angry and in a bad state of mind and snapped at someone for no good reason. Maybe you apologized later for being rude and justified it by saying you were in a bad mood. Now, if it was to someone you’re close with, they know that’s not your usual behavior and you truly were just in a bad mood when you snapped at them. If you snapped at someone who doesn’t know you very well, then that’s a different story. That person will most likely perceive you as a jerk, and won’t have very nice things to say about you. It’s difficult to constantly be aware of how we perceive the world around us and how we associate things.
“Everybody is a genius. But, if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life believing that it is stupid.”
— Albert Einstein
You might perceive someone who’s wearing nice clothes and driving a nice car as a rich, stuck-up, conceited person who cares too much about their image. You might have other negative beliefs about this person that you don’t know. You may have met someone like that, or seen people who fit that description perhaps on TV, or in a movie, or in real life. Another individual might see the same person and think of him or her as a successful hard worker, who enjoys life and who takes care of his- or herself and who has a good sense of style. The person may contribute to the community, donate to charity, and share a lot of his or her wealth. These are two completely different perspectives that came from looking at the same person. Be careful what you allow yourself to believe and how you let yourself perceive.
Your tone of voice is important in determining how people will interpret and perceive your message. You’ll want to reflect your recipient’s energy. If he or she is a relatively quiet person, you don’t want to communicate too passionately or in any way that could make them feel anxiety because the person will tune out your message and remember only the anxiety. In the long term, people rarely remember what words you said, but they will always remember how you made them feel. Make sure you’re making people feel good and loved all the time. A good way to do this is by being a good listener. You will have so many friends you won’t know what to do with them all.
Bottom line? Be aware of how you let yourself perceive and associate things. Remember everything just is. Your perceptions get in the way and tell you how you think it is.
Random Fact
There are about 6,800 languages in the world.
