How you interpret the information you come in contact with, every day of your life, will determine how your life is shaped.
You must be aware by now, after living more than a decade or two on earth, that it is possible to have two people from the same street, who watch the same things everyday, who hear the same things every hour, who learn the same things and have the same experiences for many years, and still turn out completely different from one another, right?
Right.
It's almost amazing. How can we be eating the same things, getting the same things inside of us, every single day, and still turn out differently? I know how! Follow me carefully.
Joke Rowling and Anita Tiwani were the closest friends in High school. They attended a boarding school, and were roommates, so they literally shared the same experiences. They were both intelligent, but one of their teachers were impossible! We all had that one teacher in high school.
That term, they both aimed to ace their subject, they read hard as usual, and at the end of the day, they had the exact same score, 62B.
They complained bitterly, but they interpreted the situation differently. Joke believed that, if, after all the hard work she could only get 62B, then what was the point?
She didn't think she could go higher than that. However, Anita felt differently. She believed 62B was just a stepping stone. It could have been worse, and since she scored 62B, she was going to try harder the following term to score higher. It was a challenge for her.
With the different interpretations, they took their second term exams, and Anita did a lot better than first term, while Joke scored lower.
Same scores, same experience, different interpretations.
Let me tell another story.
Bill Ikegwe and Favour Aminu, although didn't know one another, had a mutual friend from graduate school, Loye Blue.
Loye Blue's career took off immediately after graduate school. He was fortunate to be at the right place at the right time, was introduced to higher ups and in a short while, he became Country Manager for his company in Ethiopia.
Loye started living the good life, driving sophisticated vehicles, eating great, and even posting on his Snap for friends to see. Among these friends, we have Bill and Favour.
Unlike Loye, Bill and Favour weren't eating as good. Bill was still a Junior Auditor for the third year in one of the Big Fours in South Africa, while Favour wasn't very favoured. He was Personal Assistant to the Personal Assistant of Shell Nigeria's Manager.
Oh yes, you heard that right, but let's focus.
Every time Bill saw Loye's Snaps, he felt this little - not so little - ting in his stomach. He was intimidated, jealous, envious and always wishing he had the kind of life Loye did.
He justified it with the thought that he was more intelligent than Loye was, and life was really unfair. He lived bitterly, hating Loye, hating himself, hating his job, hating life for being so unfair, and the bitterer he became, the more distracted he was and the worse he became at his job.
And when we flip the coin, there was Favour, PA to a PA, in his small office. Every time he went through Loye's Snaps, he saw everything he could become.
His face would always light up as if he was getting an inspiration and then he'd feel a fire inside of him that would push him from his seat, to continue the courses he was taking, proposals he was writing, and applications he was sending. He didn't want to be a second-rate PA all his life, and Loye's Snaps always inspire him to push for what was achievable.
Same Snaps, same information, completely different interpretations.
It is as simple as that. How you interpret the information you come in contact with, every day of your life, will determine how your life is shaped.
What your life turns out to be is largely a function of how you interpret the things you see, the actions of others, the things you read and what you hear as you proceed through life.
Where someone is seeing intimidation, another person is seeing inspiration.
Where someone is seeing failure, another person is seeing a challenge.
Where someone is seeing a mountain and crying that there's no way he can surmount it, another person is seeing building materials and thinking of ways to get a stone grinder and get into business.
Where someone is seeing a problem, another person is seeing an opportunity for growth.
Where someone is seeing an end, another person is seeing the beginning of something new.
Where someone is seeing white, another person is seeing just another out of the numerous shades of white.
These people are seeing the same things, but they are interpreting them differently, and their interpretation is forming their lives, how they behave, how they grow, how they think, what they do and who they relate with.
What you see don't matter as much as how you interpret it. And the beautiful thing is, you can choose, consciously, your own interpretation. You can choose how you process certain information.
What you see don’t matter as much as how you interpret it.
This single choice of yours, what you choose will go on to determine whether you'd live a bitter, defeated, stagnant life, or a peaceful, hearty, and prosperous life.
Anytime you're processing information and interpreting it, ask yourself a salient question for a minute, is your interpretation of this information going to make your life better, or worse? Will it absolve you of responsibility for your life, or will it push you to take hold of actions? The answer to this question will help you interpret correctly.
Two friends are sitting and watching the horizon across the ocean. They are looking at the same thing, but one is seeing the end of a blissful night, the other is seeing the breaking of a brand new day. Be the one that sees the day.
To your growth,
Abiola Okunsanya,
Handzinspired.
Thank you sir for sharing this insightful post! I learnt more through the wisdom you shared! 👏🏾