Why It is So Difficult to (Even Somewhat) Objectively See the World Around Us?
People See What They Want to See
We see others and the world around us not as they are but as we are. People see things and the world around them from their perspective. In most cases, people ignore reality and their perception is quite different from the reality. Our assumptions, interests, expectations, motivation, needs, mood, attitude, and personality affect our perception. Negative people see only negativity everywhere, whereas positive people see a lot of positivity.
People with high negativity find a lot of faults in other persons and their behavior. They often criticize others. Because of too much negativity, they are not even able to see positive aspects of other persons and situations. They think that only they know more than anyone else. They are of the view that they see others and the world around them correctly (objectively) whereas another persons’ perception is flawed and biased.
Such people have unreasonably high positive views about themselves. If everything is going on well, then they think it is happening because of them. However, if there is anything wrong, then they think it is because of others. From their perspective, everything that they have done or are doing is fine, no matter how horrible things have been or are for others.
They hardly try to see themselves and their actions objectively or from a slightly different perspective. They continue to live in their own world (of reality). They even don’t try to understand the objective reality or to see things from another persons’ perspective. When somebody put a different viewpoint in front of them, they often get angry at that and start blaming others/situational factors.
These narrow and strong views are becoming more and more common these days. A lot of problems in families, organizations, societies and even at global level are happening because of these limited views and perception. Even wars are happening because of such limited views as leaders are not trying to understand other parties’ or countries’ perspectives. They are seeing things and others from their limited perspective.
It is very hard for people to look within themselves, to analyze their thinking pattern and ask themselves: Is there any issue with my perception, thinking and behavior? Instead of looking at themselves and their behavior, most often they keep blaming others. To them they are virtuous, rest others are vicious. To them their perspective is the only legitimate and real perspective.
If you are also thinking and behaving like that, you can not become highly effective and inspirational in your life. To become effective and inspire others, you have to broaden your view. You have to learn to see things and world around you somewhat objectively, if seeing them fully objectively is not possible.
Ways to Overcome Your Limited View
First step to overcome the limited view of yourself, others and the world around you is to give as much time as possible to yourself. One primary reason why people have limited view is that they don’t give enough time to themselves. Most people hardly give time to themselves. They have time for everything, but not for themselves. They hardly analyze their own thinking and behavior. Rather they keep finding faults in, and criticizing, other persons and their behavior. Don’t become like majority of the people. You are different. So, think and act differently, and become different.
Give as much time as possible to yourself and try to deeply understand yourself. The more you know yourself, the better you will be able to understand others and the world around you.
Also, try to understand and analyze things and people more objectively. Try to gather as much data/information as possible about others, and the situation you are in, before reaching to any conclusion. Don’t get so much attached with your views and perception that it becomes difficult for you to see things, and others, from a slightly different perspective. Be flexible. Be open to more information and diverse perspectives.
Become more empathetic. Try to see things from another person’s perspective. Try to understand why somebody is behaving the way he or she is behaving.
Once you work on yourself, you will be able to see others and the world around you more clearly and somewhat objectively.
