Focus 3 
In every situation you are dealing with, there are two dynamics at work: The first is how you see the situation, and the second is what you do in response to how you see the situation. It is essential to understand the relationship between those two dynamics.
How effectively you respond is largely determined by how clearly you see. Clarity of vision drives quality of action.
In other words, there is a cause-and-effect relationship between seeing and doing, between perception and action. That means you are not likely to change your action until you change your perception. You are not likely to change what you do in response to a situation until you change how you see it.
Clarity is power. Lack of clarity is a recipe for mediocrity … or worse.
To be disciplined in your action, you must first be disciplined in your perception. We talk and act as if we see things as they really are. But we don’t, and that’s the challenge. There are several default traps that distort our perception and disrupt our ability to see clearly. Understanding (and avoiding) these traps is essential to seeing with clarity and responding with discipline.
Spotlight Effect
We don’t see the whole situation; we only see a part. That’s OK as long as we understand there is more to see and then do the work to gain a broader perspective. The challenge is that our perception is limited, but it feels complete. We think we see more than we actually do, and we often miss realities and information that are critical to the situation. We see what gets our attention, but we don’t always see what matters. Sometimes what gets our attraction distracts us from seeing what we need to see.
Negativity Bias
This is the tendency for negative things to get our attention more readily than positive things. Also known as positive-negative asymmetry, negativity bias means that criticisms have a greater impact than compliments, and bad news gets more recognition than good news. It also refers to the habit of dwelling on the negative.
Confirmation Bias
Confirmation Bias is the trap of seeking and giving weight to information that confirms our opinion, while ignoring and giving little weight to evidence that goes against our opinion. Not only will people ignore disconfirming evidence, they will often go so far as to distort information that might indicate their perspective or opinion isn’t correct. This leads to the next mental trap …
Cognitive Dissonance
This is the feeling of discomfort that results when you are confronted with information or evidence that runs counter to your beliefs. When what you believe to be true is challenged by facts or evidence, you experience dissonance (emotional stress), and the tendency is to try to explain away the evidence in order to hold to your beliefs. This reveals that our beliefs are often more emotional than rational.
Tyranny of Either/Or
This is the trap of thinking that something must be either “A” or “B”and failing to recognize it might be possible to be both. Or that there are other solutions or decisions beyond “A” or “B”.
Here are three steps you can take to avoid these traps and see situations more clearly:
Expand your thinking
Do the work to see more of the situation. Get beyond your immediate perception. Get beyond what gets your attention and find what really matters. What do I not see that I need to see? What am I missing? Am I giving my attention to the right things? What really matters here?
Extend your thinking
Do the work to see further. What is the long-term impact? What consequences am I not seeing? Do I see the short, mid, and long term consequences of my choices? Do I see where my current attitude and actions are taking me?
Shift your thinking
Do the work to see differently. Challenge your assumptions. Where might my thinking be wrong? What evidence supports my assumptions? What evidence would suggest my assumptions are not accurate? Be curious. Explore. Brainstorm new ideas and different perspectives. How do others see the situation? What is an alternative to what I am thinking?
Remember: Perception drives action. How you see determines what you do. Clarity of vision drives quality of action.
Do the work.
