You See What You Want To See

Recently, there was an advertisement for a job. And I got excited because I was eligible as per their description.

But as soon as I tried to apply, I couldn’t. And it made me frustrated. When I enquired about the same, I got to know I misunderstood the meaning and as such, they will update it for more clarity.

Let’s deep dive to understand this so you can be more open and use it to your advantage.

Visual Deception

Humans including you and me are weird. And they do a lot of things which don’t add up. For example, you will debate for 2 hours on how eating healthy is the surefire way to lose weight. And when the debate is over, you go and eat at nearby fast food restaurant.

You will say things like – you hate your boss and the job. And then the next day, do nothing about it. Just follow the orders and get back home to whine again.

Clearly, your actions often don’t follow the wisdom you have. Many people know that sitting for a long period of time will result in big bellies.

But they don’t do anything like exercising, eating healthy and maintaining regular breaks from sitting.

Just because you know doesn’t mean you are going to use it to uplift your life. And all of this from the judgement of other people. I saw it, you saw it – but can you trust what you see. Often there is more depth than what you can see. Visual deception is at play.

The Reality

So you can’t be sure just by observing. You can have baseline information but not something concrete.

For example, you might see a fat girl and think she is lazy. But she might have low metabolism and her genes don’t allow to lose weight like everyone else. Or you might be the only earning member with the loan, so risking your job is a surefire way to become homeless.

Difficult to judge based on visuals alone. Now that you know – you can use this to your advantage.

You can send a signal with the visuals in your relationship, society, and job. If your boss is judging you from the visual then show your hard work. Of course, back it up with real work. But as long as you don’t make the visual for it, you are going to lose.

So, it is a great asset you can use to your leverage. For example, in a relationship you have to be respectful, a great listener and rational. But if you are being judged by what you wear, then wear accordingly or you will lose the game.

Honest Mistake

Not only in visuals, but mistakes also happen in writing too. Sometimes you try to convey one thing and the reader thinks of something different altogether.

And at this time, wrong things might happen. Both the person isn’t entirely responsible for this mishap. It’s an honest mistake. Sometimes the grammar is incorrect and sometimes there could be multiple meanings of the same phrase.

Confirmation Bias

You want to be right. And that attitude has resulted in a thing called confirmation bias. For example, if you think that beer is good for health. Then you will search with the phrase, ‘beer is good for health’.

And sure enough, you will find some research backing that claims. This will make you feel that this is the truth and you are right.

But to get rid of confirmation bias, you need to look at negating searches and see if there is a claim on the exact opposite.

If you do a quick search then you will find there are many claims. And then too you need to read the fine prints to understand what the actual claim is and not just the headline.

This runs in many areas of your life. And the best way is to try to find things which might make you wrong. And when you don’t find any, then you can be confident. If you find something then you need to read to understand the things.

So if you want to find if eating apple causes cancer then try searching ‘eating apple doesn’t cause cancer’, ‘causes of cancer’ – this way if apple causes cancer then such articles will pop up.

Speak Clearly, Be Open

So you have a beautiful opportunity to uplift your life and have empathy. Mistakes will happen, someone will misunderstand you and there will be visual deception at play.

Now that you know, you can be more empathetic and not jump to the conclusion. Instead, be open to different realities.

Also, you can be more careful about what you say or how you present yourself. Because it doesn’t matter if you like it or not, others will judge you. So better use it to your own advantage.