Optical Illusions

Ever see a drawing or a grid and see one thing only to be told to look for another? Then when you look again you see the other thing? Yeah, I’m talking about optical illusions and I find then fascinating.

Even look down a set of train tracks and notice way off in the distance the two rails look as if they converge? Like I said, optical illusions are interesting.

Your life can be like an optical illusion too, the apparent circumstances can show you one picture when the reality is another picture is right there too. The thing about these illusions to remember is perspective.

There have been documented examples of people who died because of what they thought was true but really wasn’t. People who died after falling, drown in shallow water, even one man who froze to death in a non-functioning refrigeration boxcar in 60 degree weather.

I played Texas Hold’em poker with some friends recently. One of my friends kept folding and then when the hand was over would often say, I had a full house, or I had a straight! But she also kept saying I never win, I’m not very lucky and other negative things. When she would play the hand she hardly ever won. So what was going on? She saw herself as unlucky, she never saw what the cards in her pocket could be and she convinced herself that it was better and safer to never take a chance yet when she did it was with the expectation that she would lose.

And so it is in life; you may not take a chance because you expect it to not work out, you may quit just as you were about to succeed, or you might totally misread what is right there in front of you.

So practice seeing everything from both sides and see what you discover.