The choices we make, the circumstances we find ourselves in, and the way we interact with the world around us are all indelibly shaped by where we’ve come from.
Two people faced with the same set of options – and the same information – will often make radically different choices.
Sometimes, this is simply because they’ve both processed things differently.
For example:
One might value a particular outcome more than the other. They have different preferences. These are expressed by the decisions they make.
But whether it’s a matter of preference, of processing, or something else entirely, the question remains…
Where do these influences come from?
They come from us.
We accumulate them on the journey from where we began to the present moment.
If our journey was challenging, we’ll have one kind of view we apply to this new situation.
If the trip was full of opportunities to learn & grow, we’ll have another pespective entirely.
In either scenario, we’re not a blank slate that passively takes in the details at hand, analyses them objectively, and comes to the “optimal” decision.
We’re biased, based on the road we’ve taken.
This isn’t always a problem. But it’s always worth bearing in mind.
Conditioning that serves us is an asset…
But biases that blind us to reality and push us further away from the things we want?
They’re a liability if clear thinking is goal.
Whatever path brought us here, we’re not condemned to play out our part with no say in where we go next.
We have a choice.
If we know that another person, having taken another path, might have arrived at this same point… And in doing so, have an entirely different view on it… then we’re free to step into that person’s shoes.
To imagine how, if we’d travelled with them, that we might see things in exactly the same way.
And by envisioning another perspective, we learn something important:
Our biases are no more valid than any others we might have picked up along the way.
We’re just as capable of wiping our slate clean as we are embodying another perspective – a more useful one.
The road we’ve travelled has been and gone. But what we do with its lessons & its memories is up to us.