Tag: perception

Perspective

Bad day

This morning I woke up feeling unmotivated, but could not identify the source of it. Then a thought passed through my mind, is this going to be a bad day? First, I started to indulge in the self-pity of these feelings; then I got curious.

I started to ask myself, what are the perceptions that lead to these feelings? Not in a quest to ban their existence, but in an effort to embrace what they are trying to teach me. Because, what I have interpreted as a bad day scenario, could be a new idea trying to get my attention, knowing that I may not recognize it in my good day comfort zone.

As soon as I embraced what was living in me, rather than trying to “fix” it, I began to see more possibilities. Realizing that waking up feeling unmotivated gives me an opportunity to approach my life from a different vantage point today.

It’s not about good and bad, it’s about embracing the best way that life knows how to get our attention. The reality is, sometimes a gift may come wrapped-up in our perception of a bad day.

Perspective

Feeding the illusion

Analyzing my personal perceptions began as a product of my curiosity. This practice typically places me in situations where I have to willingly challenge my own – often strongly held – thoughts and beliefs. This is not an easy process, because when successfully challenged, it shifts the reality of something that at one time I thought I knew for sure.

At the point where new information, or old information seen from a new vantage point, reveals the true reality of a thing, we have an opportunity to shift with it or not. Choosing to hold on to a compromised perception is a lot of work because it means we now have to feed the illusion by convincing ourselves of a false reality.

Feeding the illusion is “smart” in practice, because it gives us, however false, a sense of security. However, it costs us in our growth and consumes valuable energy.

When the reality of something is clear, shifting with better information can be hard. But, continuing to feed the illusion is the definition of insanity.

Brand Strategy Perspective

A wider perception

Perception is defined as:

The process of becoming aware of something through the senses.

A persons perception is only as good as…

– The process they use to gather information.

– Their interpretation of the information.

Perception is not…

– A barometer of right and wrong or good and bad.

– An unchanging reality of our environment or experience.

A person can widen their perception by…

– Expanding their process for digesting new information.

– Gathering information from alternative sources.

Our world, projects and ideas could benefit from a wider perception. But first, we must challenge ourselves to discard accustomed perceptions for broader ones.

Brand Strategy

DOPE is the best of times

Our perception of time is a construct of the brain. And like every good thought experiment, time, under the right circumstances, can be manipulated. It is one thing to understand this theory in concept, it is another thing to witness it in action.

DOPE is an innocent film that did something mischievous. It managed to successfully place the viewer in two alternate time-zones, the 90’s and present day, without adjusting our perceived reality. To do this, the movie leveraged the power of visuals and sound.

DOPE-lab

Visuals….

Dual existence: The visuals were an intelligent mix of things that “could” exist in both time-zones (Hairstyles, clothes, etc.) For example, part of the movie takes place in a computer lab that looks like it could have existed in the 90’s.

Minimize themes: To keep the viewer from fully committing to a single time-zone, the movie did not lose itself in a dominant theme from either period. While the movie starred a teen cast, there was a relatively small use of social media, texting, cell phone use, etc.

Neutral: The scenes did not date themselves and were shot in areas that had a timeless quality to them.

Sound….

No compromise: The soundtrack for the movie matched the flavor of 90’s music without compromising today’s sound.

Lost in sound: Although our world is very connected, in DOPE, we did not get lost in the technology, we go lost in the sound.

Why it’s relevant….

These techniques keep the viewer absorbed in the 90’s, even though we know we’re in present day. This plays into the overall theme of the movie, which sets-out to shatter “outdated” and misguided perceptions about different groups of people. Just as the lead character cuts his 90’s hairstyle in favor of something more “updated” in the end, this movie challenges us to address stereotypes that don’t support the truth of who we really are today.