Scott's Thoughts~Perception

Thanks to Scott Hutchison for this thoughts on Perception, our theme at Elan this month! Scott is a Registered Massage Therapist at our office in Bowness, NW, Calgary. 

We have reached November. It’s a big month!!! Our daughter turns 10, I am one grey beard hair away from wizard status and we have a whole month at Elan dedicated to Perception.

 

As of writing this, I have just competed at the Pro Level at an international speaking competition. It was a big deal to me and kinda fell into my lap actually. There were two judges for the event, one from Calgary and one from Las Vegas. Both super amazing speakers in their own right so there was no question as to their street credit. But a person’s perception can colour a behaviour and a structure.
 

Judge one... I’ve known for a year and have run into many times. Judge two was new to me, so I made it a point of getting to know him over the first day and a half. My scores were 92 vs 77 respectively. With bonus points, my average was 93.5. Not bad for my first crack at it. Now where I lost points with one judge, didn’t seem to matter with the second. One was more into the story and message, the other had other things they were focused on. Same speech... 15 points difference. The scoring sheet gave me more insight... but all I can say is... a person’s perceptions will colour a structure or behaviour. Now full disclosure, I knew I would be getting a lower score from judge two because judge one said that’s how all the speakers were being scored. Knowing this... I did what I felt in my heart to be the best thing I could do on stage and let the chips fall.

 

In my mind though, waiting to go on stage (I was second to last) I had doubt, anxiety, anger, hunger and a massive headache. I needed to move, to talk, to get back into my prime of behaviour. Next time I’ll go first... for sure. Because my perception was highjacking my upper mental intelligence and burning through way too much energy.

 

Now... As I write this...I’m actually sitting in an airport in a desert reflecting on all the times this past trip where I had to pause and freak out at a situation. 23 times I freaked out on this trip only to discover that I’m nuts and I need to just follow the process or “just do the actions” when in a new emerging structure. “It will all work out” was my motto for the trip. And for the most part... my mind can create bigger, scarier things than the real world can put in front. The trip was actually smooth as glass, as long as I kept moving forward and stayed out of my head.

 

How much do your repeating patterns colour your perception? Take stock today. Count all the moments where you are hamstrung by perception and what you did to feel different about it. Was it pressing on, or was it reading the instructions?

 

Tucson Morning: