Filters

3rd October 2020

Lucy is a nine-year-old Dachshund that receives laser therapy frequently for her spinal condition. To protect her eyes from the Class IV laser, she wears very chic Doggles during treatment. The lens are tinted, making her world looked slightly darker. She does not appear to resent them and in fact, seemed to enjoy them as she sits contented on her guardian’s lap. This actually inspired her guardian to obtain some Doggles for her to wear even when she is not in treatment. She does not appear to be fazed though her world may seem different looking through those filters.

When you are born, your mind is an empty page, like a story waiting to be written. Your eyes take in your surroundings, your mind hungrily absorbing the information unfiltered, uncensored, and unbiased, forming your first thoughts. Your concept of ideas, theories, and the world are shaped by the stimulus you received. There is no differentiation between good or bad, right or wrong, and efficiency or not. Swear words do not carry any implications until you are told you should not say it. Misbehaviour only become misbehaviour when someone tells you off. Your view of the world begins to skew depending on the lessons you receive from your parents, teachers, friends, and anyone you speak to. It is also affected by what you see and what you know.

You view your life through filters always. There are no exceptions. Filters are important as it allows us to make decisions than turn into actions. Without filters, there would be no rationale, no constructive thought processes, and ultimately, no action taken. As you know, results only happen when action is taken, for the better or worse. Filters allow that to happen.

However, it is important to know that your span of knowledge, understanding, and appreciation of life is also limited by your filters. Where your filter has allowed you to make a rational judgment and take reasonable actions leading to your results, it also hinders your awareness, affecting your actions, limiting you to different, possibly better results.

Once you are aware that you see the world through filters (and always will), you can then take steps to adjust and change your filters, expanding your paradigm and viewing the world differently from before. This is important because the alternative is leading exactly the same life you have led before up to now, that is, not growing.

Not taking into account that you have no control over, like your parents and their influences, where you are located (if you lived in the countryside, you would not receive the same stimulus you would receive living in a city), the ability to decide how you want to view your world remains a privilege that is available to all. You have the luxury of free thought, regardless of economic status, personal situation, or your surroundings.

Have you ever notice that you tend to see things that you are thinking of? For example, if you have just bought a Mazda MX5, you keep seeing Mazda MX5 on the roads or when you are looking for a house, you keep seeing ‘For Sale’ signs outside properties. Fundamentally, your mind is trained to look for things that it is thinking of. This also means that its ability to evaluate those thoughts is limited to what it understands, its filters in place. If your filter is that life is stressful and are not able to see past that, regardless of what happens, you will find stress. Even if the stress is taken away from you, you will still not believe it.

Another point is that you will not be able to see opportunities or possibilities that others may see because your mind is thinking in a certain way, bounded by its filters. So when presented with the same situation and circumstances, you may fail to utilize and maximize the chance in front of you. You are limited by your filters.

To change (and improve) your results, you have to change your actions taken. To change the actions you take, you have to change the way you think for the ancestor of every action is a thought. It is embracing the ability to have filters (so decisions can be made eventually) and disrupting the same filters (so better decisions may be made) that will determine who is capable of making better actions based on improved thinking leading to superior results. If you can balance the idea of having filters and expanding your filters at the same time, you will continue to grow and possibly change your results.

Here are three suggestions for you to do so:

1. Understand and accept that you are seeing the world through filters and make the decision that you want to adjust, improve, and change them.
2. Accept without question that there is still so much you do not know and get busy learning by introducing different stimuli for your mind. Talk to different people, read books, watch videos, and perform any act that is out of your normal routine. You simply do not know what you do not know.
3. Act ‘as if’ you have gotten what you desire already. For example, if you are wanting to be successful, you need to act as if you are successful already. If you want to be excelling in your craft, act as if you are the best already. The power of acting ‘as if’ cannot be underestimated. The world sees you as you see yourself. When you start acting as if you have achieved what you desire, your filters would automatically change and remember that your mind seeks out what it is thinking of.

Lucy enjoys seeing her world from her Doggles filter. What would you like to see in your world and what filters you need to change to allow you to see that?

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