Welcome to the Daily Quote, the podcast designed to kickstart your day in a positive way. I'm your host, Andrew McGivern, and this episode is brought to you by the Great News podcast. Because great news should be heard, and the link is right here in the show notes.
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Today’s quote is from Joseph Jaworski’s 1996 book Syncronicity: The Inner Path of Leadership where he wrote an almost identical version.
Joseph Jaworski once said,
“We do not describe the world we see; we see the world we can describe.”
This quote is profound on so many levels.
We are bombarded with constant stimulus every single day. We don’t actually “see” everything. We only see a small fraction of what we are exposed to.
It would be impossible for our brains to notice and process everything so what we actually “see” is a filtered version of reality. We only see what is relevant to us. This mechanism is called the reticular activating system. Have you ever bought a new car and suddenly you see that make and model EVERYWHERE. They were there all along but you couldn’t see them because it wasn’t important to you. And it was filtered out into the background.
And think about how two people can describe the same event and come up with radically different interpretations.
I know one religious person that “sees” everything in terms of conflict between angels and demons. They “understand” their religious doctrine and describe the world through that understanding.
And I know another person who analyzes everything strictly based on science and empirical evidence. He sees a different world entirely with no room at all for spirituality or religious thought. I am somewhere in between.
The event was the same but the meaning is different for each person.
And in societies with languages that lack a word for a concept it is difficult for them to comprehend the concept because they don’t have a way to describe it. The more we expand our vocabulary the more our world expands.
Our experiences, beliefs, expectations and assumptions act like a filtration system that only allows us to see a version of the world that we can describe based on our programming.
And the key word here is “programming”.
If we are programmed by these filtering mechanisms it implies that we can reprogram ourselves to see more… or see things differently.
And when we accept that concept then we can take back control because the more concepts we understand the more opportunities we have to “see” more of the world.
We can reframe our problems into challenges or opportunities.
We can reprogram our labels we’ve assigned ourselves because maybe our biggest limitation is not what we are capable of doing but the way we have learned to describe what we are capable of doing.
And finally, I’d like to touch on the negativity we are constantly exposed to.
A doom and gloom news feed can manufacture a belief that “everything is getting worse” But if you intentionally expose yourself to great news… then you begin to see a better world.
Why, because now you can describe it.
So here is the question:
What aspect of your life is holding you back because you are not able see a better way? What can you do today to help you understand the solution?
Because if you can describe it, you can see it.
This podcast was recorded in my secret underground layer. The script for this show was composed and recorded by a human, Andrew McGivern. That’s me. AI was used to verify quote attribution and the background music is AI generated.
That’s going to do it for today. I’m Andrew McGivern signing off for now, but I’ll be back… tomorrow! Same pod time, same pod station with another Daily Quote.
