Monday, 14th of December 2009 at 05:34:31 PMHave you ever noticed how some people always see the negative aspects of people and places while others see the positive things about people and cities? I developed an illustration of why this works this way. Here it is:
Gather with a few people. Anywhere will work. Ask them to take 5 seconds to quickly look around and find three things that are blue. Then ask them to close their eyes and point out three things that are red. Most will only be able to remember the blue things and not the red. Why is that? Because they were looking for blue.
I heard a story that further illustrates this tendency we all have. A man, with his car full of clothes and all his belongings stopped at the entrance of a city to ask a man “What kind of people live around here?” The wise man at the entrance replied, “What kind of people lived where you came from?” The driver said, “Thieves, scoundrels, liars and cheaters.” The wise man then said, “Well, those are the types of people you will find living here.”
We tend to find what we are looking for. Whether we look for the positive or the negative in others we will always find it.
Tom LeBlanc
