Reality or Perception; Truth or (Dream, Smoke, Lie, Illusion)

A few days ago my wife Lori and I had a discussion that made me pause. The focus of this conversation was perception, the difference between an impression and reality both personally and professionally.
“You only get one chance to make a first impression”, a phrase most of us have heard throughout our lives, a statement that has become generally accepted by most of the world. But is it true or just an assumption? How much of what we have been trained to think or believe is actual, and how much an illusion that holds us from ever achieving the things we perceive beyond our reach or impossible?
I must admit I am guilty of this myself. More than a few times in my life, I have met people and made judgments about them personally or professionally that didn’t hold true in the end. People who have disappointed me because I had expectations of them that were not realistic as well as those who have far surpassed what I thought they were capable of. I am sure the Wright Brothers were told more then once to give up their fantasy of flight and to get back to reality fixing bicycles and printing presses in their shop.

If you have no dream, then what is there in life to achieve? What is left to accomplish?

Does your perception of yourself limit your possibilities; are you the largest roadblock in your life and profession?

Evaluate yourself often. Be honest in defining your strengths and weaknesses. It is much easier to develop a clear vision of what you wish to accomplish, when there is a solid understanding of where you are to start.

Define yourself, know who you are, be willing to learn and grow.

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Dinosaurs are extinct:

Why do we continue to repeat the same failed process or make the same mistake and expect a different result? I have observed time and time again throughout my life people and businesses that seem to believe they can grow and thrive by continuing to do or produce in the same day-to-day manner they have for years. Even under the best of conditions, with ideal economic times, failing to adapt and change to the world around us is certain extinction.

Species, society, business or individual, the same principal stands true; you must evolve. To exist by only listening to one philosophy, have you really learned anything? When you live on a planet covered by ocean, you should learn to swim.

If a company only produces one line of product, or explores and develops with a single idea, what happens to that flat earth philosophy when it is discovered that the earth is round? When you, your business or your work are not learning, creating, exploring, discovering and growing, you cease to evolve and begin to die.