I’ve got this theory that each of us has a series of filters in our brain (please humor me here if you think I’m just giving an old idea to posterity).
These filters, as I call them, are basically a sum of our past experiences combined with our heart.
The filters determine how we interpret information as it reaches our mind.
The filters can work for us… or against us.
The determining factor of how the filters work in our life is connected to our heart.
If our heart is not in the right place the filters in our mind are most likely not going to work for us.
Here’s an example… if you were to mention playing “ping-pong” and the first thought to cross my mind is landfill leachate obviously I may have something in my past that is making me go into a funk just by the thought of this game. I know, that’s a silly example (particularly since Gump loves ping-pong), but you get the picture… my filter is telling me that I should be repulsed by the back and forth motion of the ping-pong ball by the two ping-pong paddles… and while I may like the soothing chime of the ping-pong ball as it rattles off my paddle, I really am not all that excited about knocking the ball back over the net to you. Maybe it’s the back and forth… back and forth… monotony that sounds like Chinese water torture?
The Filter Theory is pretty simple: Our past experiences combined with our heart determine how we will react to a given stimuli. The stimulus is significant to the theory as there is probably an underlying reason for the adverse reaction.
Applying The Filter Theory to ping-pong… in this example, my heart is just not getting into this game of ping-pong. Now, maybe my filter issue is that I am just not into sharing my ping-pong ball… so I need to either (a) loosen up about this game, and accept that it’s just ping-pong, or (b) maybe we should simply try to enjoy another game altogether. In any event, I would need to work on my heart and my ping-pong issue.
Are there any “ping pong’s” in your life?
What actions have you taken in the past to try overcoming these ping-pong issues?
Great post, Chris.
This reminds me of the immense difficulty we have in communication. We each say and do things to make someone else feel loved but what we do might be exactly the thing that drives them crazy. Our hearts might be in the right place but our filters aren’t aligned. Thanks for these thoughts today.
so true Carol, listening, asking questions and not making assumptions, along with kindness, love and respect go a long way in effectively communicating. Thanks!
Ah…but have you ever watched Olympic ping-pong? The players stand further back from the ends of the table than most people do (except when they serve), they use a lot of spin on their hits, and the volleys are much faster than what most people see at home.
yep, that’s incredible how they play ping-pong in the Olympics! Thanks for sharing here Michael