The perception that stunk up the farm!

Years ago, my Dad had a favorite cat, Kitty Mow-Mow (he named it!), who was a pure black cat. She would sit out in the barn in the early morning and wait by the door for my Dad to come in. When he would come in, he would always bend down and pet her for a few minutes. One early Saturday morning, while it was still just a little dark outside, Dad walked into the barn, bent down and started petting Kitty Mow-Mow. After a couple of minutes, Dad noticed that Kitty Mow-Mow had a white stripe running down her back. It was at that moment that he realized that this wasn't Kitty Mow-Mow. It was a skunk. He jumped. The skunk jumped. And the whole farm stunk for the next few days.

It's always been fascinating to me that the skunk allowed my Dad to pet it. In fact, there wasn't any problem at all until my Dad realized it was a skunk and he jumped (which startled the skunk). So, in a sense, when my Dad's perception of the situation changed, the situation changed.

How many times do we allow our perceptions to shape our reality? Often. Our perceptions filter the things that we experience and the thoughts we have about those experiences. More than that, our perceptions also shape our actions.

Back in 2003 when I got sick and collapsed, the doctor gave me the diagnosis and said that only about 5% of the people ever experience a full recovery. He urged me to think of myself as being in that 5%. To me, there was never any doubt that I was in the 5%. The truth is that I don't know if I was in the 5% or not. But I learned what the people who had recovered had done and I was intensely disciplined in doing what it was I had to do in order to recover.

It gets tricky, doesn't it? Was I just lucky and was in that 5%? Or did my hard work, discipline and my belief that I was in the 5% lead to my eventual full recovery? (Or more accurately, did my belief that I was in the 5% lead to my hard work, determination and discipline?) I tend to believe that it was my perception and belief that led me to not give up. The full recovery took about five years. At any point along the way, it would have been so easy to give up. To think that I would never really be well again. Instead my doctor urged me to view any relapse as just a temporary set back.

Certainly, just believing in the positive outcome alone probably wouldn't have done the trick. Like so many times in our lives, it is that powerful combination of belief and smart, hard work that ultimately leads to the positive outcome we desire.