About reality and your reality

Have you ever think that you see only what you want to see, or what you see is limited by your perception about reality and your experiences? Have you ever realized that 2 persons can have different perceptions and definitions of the same object?

Different people have different perceptions of the same reality. In neurolinguistic programming the reality or the world, in which we are immersed is called the territory. The way you described reality, or the territory, is called the map. Imagine that the world is a huge place with millions of resources and information, is so big that we need to filter that information and use only what we find useful. The map every of us use to describe the territory, is not the territory. That map is made by our own experiences of the world

Imagine that you enter a forest where you have never been before, and you want to go through that forest to a town which is located just in the other end of the forest. The forest itself can have a lot of different paths to go through to the town, but when you start walking through it you are just following one of those paths. When you finally reach the town, you’ll have created a map of the forest, the territory, where you were walking. That map that you created does not represent the whole forest, the territory; it just represents the path you followed. Next time when you enter the forest you can do two things, either you follow the map that you created or follow a new path and you enrich your map about the forest, the territory.

This is an example analogue to how you create maps of the world, the world can be infinite in information and to live in it you have created your own maps about the world. Every person in the world has different maps of it. Simple examples of this concept are the perception people have about dogs. Some people in the world find dogs are cute animals that serve as companions to people while other people think that dogs are good meals!, people can have different points of view of the same things! Depends on how they have built their maps of the world.

Some people find that they cannot agree with others about the same things. This is due to the fact that their maps of the world are different. Next time you cannot agree with somebody think that you may have built a different map to describe the world than the other person. If you realize that everybody has different perceptions about the same things and you stop thinking that your own map is the one that correctly described our world, you will have a great tool to start understanding better other people and communicating more efficiently with them! What is very easy for you can be very difficult for others. For a runner running 5 Km can be very easy, while for most of the people is a huge effort. For some people taking in front of one hundred people can be a rich experience, for others the same thing can be very scary.

I invite you today to explore the world, to increase the size of the map that you use to represent it, the more you expand your map of these huge territory called reality, the more tools you will have to ultimately realize your dreams. As in the example of the forest, how rich is your map about the world depends on how rich you want to make it. Start also thinking that everybody has different maps of the world and instead of fighting with them because you don’t understand their point of view, try to find out how they describe their own world, what are their maps of the world.

People that believe their maps are the only representations of the world are the people who cannot grow up in life, who never seem to understand others, to never forgive, to always want to be right. The more you enrich your map the better your life will become.