THE DISCIPLINE OF PERCEPTION
Before he was an oilman, Peter D.James was a bookkeeper and aspiring investor-- a small-time financier in Cleveland, Ohio. The son of an alcoholic criminal who'd abandoned his family, the young James took his first job in 1885 at the age of 16 ( a day he celebrated as "job day" for the rest of his life). All was well enough at fifty cents a day.
Then the panic struck. Specifically, the panic of 1857, a massive national financial crisis that originated in Ohio, hit Cleveland particularly hard. As businesses failed and the price of grain plummeted across the country, westward expansion quickly came to a halt. The result was a crippling depression that lasted for several years.
We can see disaster rationally. Or rather, like James, we can see opportunity in every disaster and transform that negative situation into an education, a skill set, or a fortune. Seen properly, everything that happens - be it an economic crash or a personal tragedy-is a chance to move forward even if it is on a bearing that we did not anticipate.
There are few things to keep in mind when faced with a seemingly insurmountable obstacle. We must try:
- To be objective
- To control emotions and keep an even keel
- To choose to see the good in a situation
- To steady our nerves
- To ignore what disturbs or limits other
- To place things in perspective
- To revert to the present moment
- focus on what can be controlled
This is how you see the opportunity within the obstacle. It does not happen on its own. It is a process - one that results from self-discipline and logic.
And that logic is available to you. You need to deploy it.
Our brains evolved for an environment very different from the one we currently inhabit. As a result, we carry all kinds of biological baggage. Humans are still primed to detect threats and dangers that no longer exist--think of cold sweat when you're stressed about money or the fight-or-flight response that kicks in when your boss yells at you. Our safety is not truly at risk here- there is little danger that we will starve or that violence will break out -though it certainly feels that way sometimes.
We have a choice about how we respond to this situation (or any situation, for that matter). We can be blindly led by these primal feelings, or we can understand them and learn to filter them. Discipline in perception lets you clearly see the advantage and the proper course of action in every situation- without the pestilence of panic or fear.
Learn how to limit our passions and their control over our lives. It takes skill and discipline to bat away the pests of bad perception, separate reliable signals from deceptive ones, and filter out prejudice, expectation, and fear. But it's worth it, for what's left is truth. While others are excited or afraid, we will remain calm and imperturbable. We will see things simply and straightforwardly as they are truly are-neither good nor bad.
You will come across obstacles in life–fair and unfair. And you will discover, time and time again, that what matters most is not what these obstacles are but how we see them, how we react to them, and whether we keep our composure. You will learn that this reaction determines how successful we will be in overcoming–or possibly thriving because of–them.
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