Hear Only What is Said

Yesterday's insight was a great awakening. Suddenly I see how frequently my viewpoint and preconceived ideas influence my interpretation of situations. I read more into circumstances than are really there.

When I ran for office I left meetings with key people thinking that I had their support. Yet when I needed them they weren't there. This left me resentful for a long time after Election Day. When I had been away from the campaign long enough to see my role in it all I realized that those same people actually were there for me to the extent possible. Everything above and beyond that was my own unrealistic expectations. Many times in politics there is subtle ambiguity in conversations leaving people with sufficient room to avoid being locked into a position. And I always interpreted that ambiguity to be slightly more to my advantage than the person had intended. The truth is that I heard what I wanted to hear rather than what was actually said.

In the campaign (and other instances too) I added positive, though unrealistic, expectations to what was said and was let down. In the situation I mentioned yesterday I added a negative perspective to what was said and felt hurt.

Today only hear what is actually spoken without adding bias. This bias is ego. When processing experiences to meet the needs of the ego the result is that we work with inaccurate information and waste a tremendous amount of energy. We can be more productive in achieving our goals when we are free of bias.