The Power of Perception

I’ve read Meditations by Marcus Aurelius several times and flipped it open to read a passage or two countless times.

The thing I love most about Meditations is that it’s the gift that keeps on giving.

Every time I read it, I discover a passage that I glossed over previously. A passage that now offers deep and meaningful insight to me.

Take this passage from Book 9 of Meditations for example:

“Things wait outside us, hover at the door. They keep to themselves. Ask them who they are and they don’t know, they can give no account of themselves. What accounts for them? The mind does.”

I just “discovered” this one in a recent reading. It wasn’t highlighted from a previous reading. It seemed “brand new” to me. I didn’t recognize it, even though I read it several times before.

Obviously, the first handful of times I read it, it didn’t catch my attention. Marcus tends to write in metaphors in Meditations. Apparently, I didn’t pick up on this metaphor about doors and things standing outside of them.

But it turns out that this little passage offers great insight about the power of perception.

You see, the Stoics believed that our lives aren’t a product of our circumstances. No, our lives area product of our perception of those circumstances.

Most circumstances lie outside of our control. They’re outside of us, they hover at the door of our mind. They don’t know what they are or what their meaning is. They’re completely neutral.

We are the ones who open the door and give meaning to the circumstances of our lives through our perception of them.

Something bad happens to one person and it devastates them. The same thing happens to another person and it empowers them to make a breakthrough.

The circumstance was exactly the same for these two people, the only difference was their perception of that circumstance. One person opened the door and saw a monster. The other opened the door and saw an opportunity.

The beautiful and empowering thing about all of this? Our perception is completely within our control.

We can choose to see the circumstances of our lives through a different lens. We can choose to see obstacles as opportunities. We can choose to see setbacks as challenges meant to bring out the best in us.

We have the power of choice!

Now, when a difficult situation arises. I give myself a moment before I react. I imagine it standing outside the door of my mind, meaningless, completely neutral. I ask myself what’s the best way to address this? What opportunity does this situation offer?

I choose my perception of the circumstance.

Am I perfect at this? Heck no. I still let certain situations get the best of me. I fall victim to my negative perceptions and emotions. I’m human.

But I’m getting better at choosing better perceptions.

And for that, I have Marcus Aurelius and numerous readings of Meditations to thank.

Thanks Marcus!