To carry this a bit further, perhaps perception is created NOT in experience, but in one’s interpretation of one’s experience, which is molded not just by one’s self, but also by the knowledge-networks of which one is a part.

You also should keep in mind that not all of you is “in” you. Your experiences, thoughts, beliefs, predispositions and personal agenda would not be possible without other people and the way they perceive you in relation to them.

Listening to the other realizes a part of you that does not exist without that particular other. That is, there are unknown-knowns about oneself.

Don, indeed. Well said.

Perception is Reality.

At first it sounds so trite as to be brushed away…like an excuse by those who just don’t want to hear you or get what you’re trying to get them to get, but after further review, as they say in the NFL, and perhaps some practice in out-of-body exercises, the absolute truth of that statement begins to sink in.

How many times have you heard someone, upon hearing a recording of their own voice protest that the voice on the recording sounds nothing at all like them? It’s because we are the ONLY person in the world who experiences things from our point of view, and can’t [necessarily] expect other’s to have the same experiences we do given identical stimuli.

Remember, they don’t ask you how, they ask you how many.

Which, as always, brings us back to listening, measuring, and retooling the message to fit the perceptions of others.