Do you understand the power of projection? I didn’t. But I do now.
Let’s cut to the chase. We view the world through our eyes. Well that seems obvious, but the scary part is that we just don’t realize how deeply engrained this habit is. (Now of course, I am writing this blog and projecting on you that you too have a deeply engrained capacity to project, and perhaps not, but I’ll assume that for now!)
The upshot of our projection is that we go around in a daze overestimating and underestimating ourselves, and not really being in touch with the real world. We live in our own made up world a large percentage of the time. Pretty scary if you think of it.
We project how much people like us, or dislike us. We project how honest someone is, or dishonest. We project how caring someone can be, or how heartless. It’s all in us, and while it might be rooted in reality, it is equally possible that it is baseless.
So I challenge you to look at your world through the eyes of someone who IS projecting. Make that assumption. Then once you know you are projecting certain things on other people, really judge them and see if they meet your projection – or if perhaps the reality if different than you have made it. Perhaps you will justify things but perhaps you will figure out that you have been living in a world of illusion.