Learning Objectives:

1. Describe the impact of mood on conversation, relationships and outcomes
2. Increase self-awareness of personal factors that affect your perception and the perception of others
3. Discover what aspects of perceiving you can influence to shift your experience of reality

To Change Future Outcomes, Change your Perceptions

It is because of the perceptual process that you become aware of the world around you. Perceiving is one of the brain’s two primary functions. The other is determining how you act in response to what you perceive.

Your perception of your environment is influenced by your past experiences, your beliefs and expectations. This is why each person’s perception of reality is different. By changing core beliefs, you can change the way you perceive the world around you.

The model below reviews from another perspective how individuals interpret clues from their current and past experiences, interpret those through sensory filters and then reject, accept or develop preferences or attitudes that ultimately lead to action. Often, the consequence of the action is not what was expected. Before these actions become habits, individuals can: Change Perception and the Experience Changes.

You can easily change your perception when you recognize the fact that you created it in the first instance based on your beliefs and past experiences. In a relaxed and reflective state with your eyes closed, create a mental image in your mind of a negative experience you wish to neutralize. Neutrally observe yourself experiencing the specific event, how it started, how you felt, where it took place, why it was negative for you and how you reacted. As you continue to neutrally observe the scene unfolding through to its end, see how your beliefs about life and yourself made you perceive the experience as negative.

Think about how you formed perceptions of the following:

Change

What is your perception of change? Many of us hold the belief that change is difficult. This locks us into a pattern of catastrophic thinking. We have the perception that any change is going to be bad. To fear change is to fear life itself. By exploring the true nature of change, you will be able to start seeing it as positive.

Responsibility

Responsibility means realizing that through your thinking, feeling and behaving, you are responsible for many of your life circumstances. It’s easy to fall into the trap of avoiding responsibility as we often mistake responsibility for forgiveness. But responsibility isn’t excusing another for their negligent actions; it is simply practicing your right to exercise more power over what you create by choosing how you respond in every moment by changing your perceptions.

Self-confidence and Your Reality

How you see yourself determines actions. Become an observer of yourself using process below. Write a realistic description of how you see yourself. Be honest. What is your perception of yourself? Start by looking at actions you take and work backwards through the process to arrive at observable data that ultimately led to your perceptions and beliefs that formed. You will eventually uncover unconscious data that that will enable you to rethink that data and change your perceptions.

What is your perception of reality and its causes? If you want to change something in your life or manifest new realities, consider what actions are causing your current results. Through positive thinking, you can cultivate new actions, habits and outcomes that will transform your life circumstances.

Your Life Purpose

Is your destiny pre-written? Are you living into a plan that’s already in existence or do you have control, or even a say over who you’ll ultimately become? These questions plague every human being on a journey to greater fulfillment. Your beliefs in this area will either inspire you to great action or leave you feeling hopeless. Understanding your perception on your life purpose will clarify your priorities and help you become your best self.

Definition of ‘Mood’: A predisposition for action. Moods occur in our bodies & language.

To change moods, change your story.

About Moods

• Bad moods lead to closed possibilities.
• We produce our moods, not others. Previous experiences predispose us to certain moods depending on the outcomes of the experience.
• Monitoring a team’s mood is critical since mood is the foundation for all action.
• Capacity to notice moods allows us to shift them. There are certain moods that are contagious and can generate poor morale.
• Recognizing we’re in a mood is the first step in shifting a mood. Once recognized, a different future is possible.
• Outcomes from conversations can be no better than the mood in which conversations are entered

Signals that indicate mood:

• Looking at the openness or receptiveness of body
• Appearance of satisfaction or frustration in the face
• Smiles indicating safety & outlook for exciting future
• Bad moods leading to complaints, resignation, etc.

Basic Moods:

Reconstructing Moods:  

Shifting moods requires recognizing and changing the story behind the mood and aligning the new mood with the body.

1. Moods reflect a person’s orientation to the future. Four basic moods are:
   • Resignation   (“Nothing I can do in the future will make any difference”)
   • Resentment   (“Others have determined my fate and are to blame”)
   • Acceptance   (“I’m willing to accept the way things are at the moment and deal with that”)
   • Ambition     (“The future holds possibilities and I like it”)
2. Moods are triggered by an assessment of the future.
3. Moods are accompanied by an interpretation of the future, including interpretations about you, others, and the world.
4. Whereas emotions are triggered by specific events and last for short periods of time (e.g. happiness and sadness), moods are not usually triggered by a single event and last over long periods of time—even lifetimes. Moods are amplified by repeated events or encounters with the same or similar outcomes.

 Self Limiting Stories

Getting to new ways of thinking, being and doing is not always easy. Often, people are stuck in stories based on perceptions that eventually become self-limiting. Moving to new more effective stories is often difficult and requires validating personal intention to create something new and different from the current stories that are in place. This also involves making a declaration to do so. Examining, testing, and changing perceptions, beliefs and assumptions to avoid unintended results is also necessary as well as using emotional energy to transform or let go of self-limiting scenarios.

To create a new future, one must:

•    Listen for beliefs, assumptions and meanings in the stories you or others tell.
•    Identify the story and realize that the story is self-limiting.
•    Determine the unintended consequences the story led you to.
•    Look at other ways to view what happened.
•    Create a new story and a new way of being thinking and acting.

Examples of Self-Limiting Stories:

Need for Approval Story:  Often discreet and difficult to observe, people construct this story to build pretenses and defenses to look good or gain approval from others. The intention to look good can displace the intention to demonstrate good performance.

Afraid to Lose What I Have or Be Hurt Story:  Occurs when individuals delay their vision, dreams and aspirations in order to remain safe or free of disappointment.

Victim Story:  A common story where individuals create defensive reasoning to create how others (they) are causing them problems or barriers or not providing something they need. It is very easy to get stuck here, forfeit individual power to others, and fail to create what they want. These stories are often driven from blame and resentment.

Rationalization Story:  Occurs when individuals fail to achieve an outcome and create explanations to rationalize a story that makes them feel better about themselves.

Why Bother Story:  Occurs when individuals are not able to create what they want due to limited choices and possibilities e.g. no time, no money, no authority. This story is usually a cover up for wanting to stay in the status quo or comfort zone or for not wanting to take responsibility. Why Bother stories are often driven from resignation.