On the Reference System and Perspectives

Reality is structured into dimensions. Each person perceives as much as their vision does. The perspective represents the angle of viewing a particular object (problem, situation, person, concept, etc.) from a specific dimension, positioned in a certain way concerning the other dimensions.

Myopic perspective is a frequent mistake, directly proportional to groupthink. It involves looking from the same angle at a particular perspective. The perspective myope is trying to also convince others that things are as (s)he sees them, without trying to look from another point of view. He is trying to bring everyone under the same umbrella in his/her small, petty world because this is the only form in which (s)he can relate and make connections.

Let’s take an example so that we would understand better. In Bucharest, many young students attended events organized by associations: competitions, conferences, case studies, one-week extended pieces of training, and summer schools. The guests seem to be gods, masters, and teachers who assume communication from the parent-child position. However, students rarely attend meetings with business people where there is communication from the adult-adult perspective. The world of full-time students consists of meetings with friends, fun outings, transient romantic relationships, and studying at the last minute concepts that they forget, as they have no way of relating them to the practical business reality (project management, copywriting, negotiation, IT programming, public relations, financial transactions, etc.). Faced with the possibility of participating in a series of informal networking meetings with professionals, they feel like strangers, taken out of the warm and comfortable space of the small world they have built, and always find something more urgent to do.

Further on, the same thing is spreading on Facebook: everyone’s social sphere will only become a mirror of the activities they accept to get involved in. And some wonder: “Why is it so difficult to get into a guild of perfectionists?” Well, that’s why.

” If all you have in your hand is a hammer, then everything around you will seem like nails to you”.

Abraham Maslow.

The ability to see things from multiple perspectives can be called vision flexibility, and it develops together with thought and will. This system is essential because it is generally valid and forms the basis for everything that exists as an action in a human’s behavior. Discovering how a person perceives things is a fundamental step in understanding them as an individual entity and their neurological levels. Let’s make a little sociological observation: Bucharest vs. Brussels.

In Brussels, on the subway, tram, and bus, I have seen NOBODY talking loudly on the phone. The discussion is held in whispers or at a low vocal level. The only ones that stand out are the Romanians. Well, how does a Romanian behave with the means of transportation? First, he jams, eventually kicks an old woman who lingers at the door, opens his phone, and starts clattering, for the entire means of transportation to hear, on meeting with his babe last night, what the doctor said about their ovaries, how he would hit his teacher’s face for giving him I do not know what grade, what he wrote in the confidential files of I don’t know which company or what he bought from the mall. The other day, I saw a couple arguing in a subway car as if they were alone. Creating an illusion of intimacy they may never have understood, the others no longer exist. One’s own point of view (one’s own vision) is the only one that exists.

Among the exercises I work with through the personal branding course, there is one in which the participants have to put themselves in someone else’s shoes. One student told me at one point that he did not understand the purpose of this exercise in the context of personal branding.

If you only live and express yourself, through yourself, and for yourself, you’re likely not to fully realize how others see you, right?

Vision is a mental picture formed based on strategic analysis from one perspective (or more). It represents the sum of certain features of spaces of perceived dimensions. Vision results from the ability to look up (literally and figuratively) and the result of encouraging specific creative skills. It is an essential and powerful source of motivation, ultimately representing the reason for some people.

The reference system represents connected entireties of clearly perceived and applied dimensions based on principles, values, ideas, convictions, beliefs, and outlooks practically reflected in actions. When it exists, it is usually unique and ultimately causes prospects to be limited. The reference system of a person is primarily formed during their first 7 years of life and then at the age of adolescence; afterward, the contact with reality that implies more or less acknowledged and/or felt independence cements this reference system, which, for a long time, perhaps even all life, affects the existence of every human being. Nobody sees the world as it is but as they perceive it. You are the average of the first 6 people you spend the most time with. What do you think about this mirror?

A drunk man, staggering as he was walking in the street, reaches a pole on the sidewalk and hits his head against it. Although he finds that it hurts, he tries once more to keep walking and then says to himself:

“Listen, pal, you know what? I think they locked us here!”

If you liked this article, then please also read the following:

Vision. Inspire. Think globally.

The Quadrant of Making Things Happen

Marcus Victor Grant

Copyright © Marcus Victor Grant 2013-present Translation by Cristiana Brezeanu of the article “Despre sistemul de referinţă şi perspective, “previously published by Marcus Victor Grant in Romanian on the 24th of February 2013 on Discerne. Copyright © Marcus Victor Grant, all rights reserved.

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