Saturday, March 20, 2021

The ~perception is reality~ myth

A few years ago I worked for a guy who told me over and over "perception is reality". He was giving me feedback that my demonstrations of frustration were leading people to think of me as an angry or out to hammer those around me. While I may have been angry at the time it was because I was pushing major goals and felt that expressing the frustration was the right thing to do at the time.

Which leads me back to the phrase. It almost seems like people that use this phrase are trying to control those around them by putting up invisible barriers to behavior. If you don't act the way I want you to people will perceive you to be wrong. Then the person giving this feedback doesn't have to be they one getting on to you, They've brought a straw man made up of those who perceive you as the bad guy.

At the time I hoped he would use this phrase with me again. My hope was that I would get to say back to him that because I perceived him to be a homosexual he must be one, then see what he did with it. It's probably a good thing that I never got to say that!