We’ve been talking about some ideas that may make you a little frustrated. They may push you out of your comfort zone.
The idea of the different realities we all live in or the frameworks/lenses we use that help us get through the day. These frameworks help us to function and move along. We filter all of our experiences through these lenses that allow us to interpret data to fit our predetermined beliefs.
At first, you might argue with me on this one, but once you start to think about it, you see it happen all the time.
Just a few weeks ago I was working with a doc who jokes around a lot. He ripped me the whole case for how “easy” I have it. For how “lazy” I am. It was funny. We had a good time. I go back and forth with him like that every time we work together. I’ve worked with this particular surgeon for over ten years.
The next day I ran into one of the nurses who was in the room with us, and she was still mad about that case. “How can you stand him. He’s so mean.”
(He’d made a joke about her not knowing the dressings he wanted)
There are two ways to see the whole situation. Either the doc is a jerk and trying to be mean, or he thinks he’s being funny and trying to make the day move along.
You could pick either one. Maybe there are even more options, I don’t know, but those were the two positions that the nurse and I took.
We were both in the same place at the same time and experienced the same things. We experienced two completely different realities, AND we felt completely different about the realities we experienced. Neither was right or wrong mind you, they just were.
Now here’s the real question, who was using the more useful lens to see the situation?
- The nurse did her job. She will work with this doc again. Everything went fine. She left angry.
- I did my job. I will work with this doc again. Everything went fine. I left happy.
Two different realities. Two different outcomes. Same situation. In the end, the only difference is how we FELT after we left. I was happy, and she was mad. It didn’t change our work, the patient’s outcome or anything else.
First I want to point out the two different movies playing. Second I want to make the argument that my filter was the better one since my goal is to be happy at work, and that’s what my lens provided. I had a good time and went about my day. Was the nurse right? Was he being an A-HOLE? In this specific case, it doesn’t matter.
(If the guy were a real Donkey’s behind it would be a different situation. If he had crossed a line my optimistic happy go lucky filter couldn’t deal with then our realities would have merged)
The point is that perception creates reality, not the other way around. We use our personal lenses on every situation to see it the way we want to. That doesn’t always work, and we have to let go of certain lenses, but that’s hard work for our brains, and they really don’t like doing that.
Giving up on the lousy test taker framework is tough. It’s much easier to mope through exams and wallow in your bad test taking framework.
But which is the better lens? Seeing the world through a bad test-taking lens or seeing the world through an improving and learning as a test taker lens?
One reality YOU CREATE keeps you trapped. The other reality you COULD CREATE sets you up to do well. You can make either one the true story.
What about the lens that says everyone is in debt up to their eyeballs. If you look at the world through that lens, you will find LOTS and LOTS of people who are and remain in debt up to their eyeballs. The evidence will overwhelm you and confirm your suspicion, and you will also stay mired in debt and working “for the man” for the rest of your life.
In this month’s edition of the Physician Assistant Exam Scholars Newsletter, I’m going to hand you a new lens. A lens that I found about a year ago. A lens that lets you see the people who don’t live paycheck to paycheck and are debt free. That lens allows you to look at those people and see how easily they did it. It’s a simple idea. It isn’t a “get rich quick scheme” not by any stretch. It’s more like a get rich in 5-15 year scheme. And by rich I mean have enough money to make your own decisions, and not be beholden to anyone.
Which is the more useful lens, one were people can get ahead in the wealthiest country in the history of the world? Or the lens that sees people in debt for the rest of their lives and barely scraping by?
Can you guess which one I’m using?
I’ll show it to you in the March issue.
It goes to the printer in a few short days. Click below to change your path and to change the path of your grandkids.
Physician Assistant Exam Scholars
P.S. Don’t use the example above to let people walk on you. That’s a different story altogether. I am not saying that you happily let people walk on you. Using all the same principles people will treat you how you let them treat you, how you project that you want to be treated.
I know this sounds a little like doublespeak, but I promise it isn’t. It’s all about how YOU create the world around you.