When you're watching television or a film, most of the time you’re unaware that the director has carefully selected what you’re viewing. We've all seen shots of what it looks like behind the cameras. In order to focus on the story, the director has to shield everything extraneous from your view. If you think about it, the larger scene is a story, too; but, it's a different story.
The window through which we’re allowed to view a story is called our ‘frame’. In fact, there is no such thing in this world as a ‘frameless’ viewpoint. It’s just not physically possible to absorb absolutely everything. Making sense of our surroundings requires that we filter and frame our perceptions. Only then can we create some meaning. This is the way we humans learn.
In the same way that we can so easily get ‘lost’ in a film and forget momentarily that we’re inhabiting an artificial frame, we can even more easily begin to believe that what exists within our mental frame is real. Forgetting how our minds have selectively chosen the objects of our perception, forgetting how our language has artificially chopped our perceptions into bits (for example, this is red, this is orange), forgetting how we have been carefully trained in what to notice and what to ignore, we pretend that we perceive things as they really are. We see what we want to see, nothing more and nothing less.
My awareness brings to mind the limitations in my ability to understand. My awareness shows me how the real world is ever so much richer and more diverse than I can imagine. Once I become aware, I will never cease to be amazed and delighted by the wondrous surprises that the universe has to offer me. Every ‘Aha!’ that signals a shift in my mental frame opens a new possibility for change that I may never before have considered. I know that I will never fully rid myself of my frame; however, the more aware I become, the more my outlook on life opens up into a Cinemascope panorama of incredible choices.
The range of choices that I find in my life today go so far beyond what I ever imagined possible when I was younger. It is so natural just to accept my point of view — my frame — as all that there is. How many times I was ready to argue and even fight to defend what I knew (or at least thought) was true? Too many times, I fear. I can appreciate that my point of view as a young man was much narrower and more limited than what I experience now. Yet, am I ready to accept that, in all likelihood, in the future, I will see my present perspective to be equally as narrow?
I can now appreciate that, whenever a frame breaks open, it hurts. When I look back at the moments of the greatest pain in my life, the vast majority of them occurred because I was unwilling or unable to see things as they really were. The pains that brought me forward were those that accompanied a change of perspective. When I resisted, I might have temporarily avoided the pain, but it always returned, and often with interest.
Today, I can appreciate much sooner that pain is the sign of an invitation to growth. I always have the choice to accept it and grow, or reject it and stay stuck. Pain is most often a chance for something new. The question is, when I turn down the challenge, how many more chances will I get?
I appreciate how much my vision of myself and my universe has grown over time. When I was younger, I appreciated how much I knew. Now, as I am older, I appreciate so much more the enormous amount I have yet to learn. And, I believe, that's where we shall find purposeful change: always on the yet-to-be-explored horizons of our experience.
Comprehending Our Frames of Perception - To learn more about this author, visit Les Brown's Website.
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Les Brown
(Visit Les's Website)
H. Les Brown, MA, CFCC grew up in an
entrepreneurial family and has been an
entrepreneur for most of his life. He is
the author of The Frazzled Entrepreneur's Guide to
Having It All. Les is a certified
Franklin Covey coach and a certified
Marshall Goldsmith Leadership
Effectiveness coach. He has Masters
Degrees in philosophy and theology from
the University of Ottawa. His experience
includes ten years in the ministry and
over fifteen years in corporate
management. His expertise as an innovator
and change strategist has enabled him to
develop a program that allows his clients
to effect deep and lasting change in their
personal and professional lives.
Les is currently focusing his energies on
creating a program to address the
difficulties successful men face as they
approach midlife. You can find out more
about the Midlife Mastery programs at www.MidlifeMa
ster.com.
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