“Everything you see or hear or experience in any way at all is specific to you. You create a universe by perceiving it, so everything in the universe you perceive is specific to you.” – Douglas Adams

This quite confirms what I’ve been believing all along, that it’s all a matter of perception. Or rather, my beliefs has shifted to be inline with that. That’s what I tell myself, whenever I happen to find myself in some form of self doubt. Interestingly, that doesn’t happen very often nowadays compared to … say a year or two ago?

I guess I really owe most of it to the book I got while in Nepal “The Art of Happiness”. The one simple rule I learnt is about expectations, perceptions and the level of happiness. The one main reason why you can’t really be happy is that you always want something better. Now, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with wanting something better, but to what extent? Where does it end? If you think about it, there’s always something newer, better, faster, cooler, nicer, (insert descriptive adjective here) just beyond the horizon. The endless pursuit of perfection. There’s no end to it.

However, it does end when you put a stop to it.

Actually, it all boils down to what the word really means. How you view things from your perspective; the way you interpret the surroundings defines your behaviour. Different people react differently to varied situations. Which is good, really. It literally takes into account past experiences, thoughts and actions; all that has transpired from the beginning, rammed into the grey matter processor, churned with the present surrounding and out comes the reaction. More often than not, perception is not only formed from within, but from the outside too – external factors. It’s actually happening all the time. It’s normal to want better things in life. It’s also being generous to want better things for other too. However, herein lies the difference – the want of something which is better. What actually constitutes to being better? Better than what? What’s your definition, your basis for comparison?

It’s a very open ended proposition, one that is definitely subject to changes along the way. My story was initially written as a standard default answer to a very standard default question. However, somehow, somewhere along the way, the remaining parts of it got trashed. I’ve got a good idea of how I want it to be shaped. The only thing is for me to act on it.

Inspired by the post “Your Perception IS Your Reality” on lifehack.org