Ever have one of those days when you really feel like you nailed it….doesn’t matter the project or task – you simply feel great about the finished product? Only then to discover someone sees it so different. They criticize your work, your presentation, your task and you begin to wonder what are they looking at, what did they hear?
There are times, even now, when I get so defensive and then attempt to convince them how amazing it was or how wrong they are and then realize – – they are simply viewing things from their perspective.
It is said that we have about 2,000,000 bits of information per second coming at us through our senses (sight, sounds, touch, smells and taste) and it’s impossible to accept all the data – – imagine you computer when you have multiple screens open and you’ve given the computer multiple tasks all at once — even your computer at times will shut down. Our brains are the same way, it will filter based on our experience, what we believe is important, our values etc and from the 2,000,000 bits of information it will actually process about 125 bits of that information. Simply put we can experience the same event and walk away with our own 125 bits of information that becomes the reality of what happened. Amazing isn’t it?
So the next time you have a situation instead of wanting to prove the other person wrong, or you get a little worked up, think of it this way, “Wow, their reality is so different, they capture 125 bits of DIFFERENT information. What can I learn from their feedback?”