One of the most interesting and useful ways of getting access to transformation is by considering that we view life through a set of filters.
That sounds simple enough, and we may have heard that before from somewhere, but this is much more subtle than you might think.
Let me begin by asserting that you don't live life as if there are filters. You just live life and react to it the way you think it is (but not the way it actually is).
So, if you can see that you have a set of filters, you have to admit that there are other ways that the world can be apart from the way you see it.
If you can see there are equally valid interpretations of reality other than yours, that's a good first step. But let's explore just how pernicious filters are.
Say you're outside, and you put on a pair of sunglasses. Suddenly, the world looks different. At this point in time, you know the world "is" really lighter and sunnier and perhaps has more glare, but the sunglasses you just put on muted some of that.
After you've worn the sunglasses for a while, though, you forget they're on, and the world now occurs as "just the way it is." Over time, you have begun to get used to the sunglasses! The only thing is, you've forgotten that you're looking at the world through your sunglasses, and you're reminded of this only when you walk indoors, and everything suddenly becomes much too dark!
The main point is that after you look through filters for a while, you forgot that there are filters! This chokes off what's possible in life because you develop a fixed way of relating to the world around you - automatically, without even thinking about it!
So what is a filter? It's a decision you made and then forgot you made it. Once you forgot you made a decision (e.g.: about how things are, how your client is, how your job is, how your boss is, how your spouse or children are), you've "embedded" the filter and your peceptions about life become permanently tainted until you go through the process of making the filters conscious again.
(To add insult to injury, the filters you have only serve to reinforce those same filters! This often explains why relationships deteriorate or how you begin losing interest in a client, your work, or even something you used to enjoy in the past.)
Oh, yes: filters often live as complaints, too!
Here's another example. We've already covered a significant one in a whole series of Sales Secrets: Your Behavioral Style! Let's say you're an Analytiic (a filter), and you don't know you're an Analytic. The world just occurs as it would to an Analytic, and you don't have any power about it! But when you consider that there are behavioral styles, and learn what an Analytic is, something opens up: You can "pull back" and see yourself for the first time as an Analytic. The beauty of doing this is that it gives you some access to seeing that the same world might occur differently to others (like Amiables, Expressives or Drivers). That's a transformation, because you can now shift your way of thinking!
This is how you can get power, because it opens yourself to seeing the world anew and to perhaps creating new contexts for your self, your life and your actions.
We have much more power in our lives when we consider we have filters and can determine what they are; we lose power when we go through life "on automatic."
Next week: What you need before you can be transformed.
Send any questions, comments, stories, or sales problems to
dan@optimumbizdev.com, and I'll personally send you a response!
LAST WEEK'S HOMEWORK: Did you resolve any of your main complaints this past week? If not, check out this week's homework.
THIS WEEK'S HOMEWORK: Take a big complaint that you have about a client and get to the root of it. How could you make a difference in the life of both the client and yourself?
Please take a minute and let me know how you're doing out there. How have these tips been helping you?
