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What We See Depends On What We Look For: Quite a simple one isn’t it? We are what we see and we always get to see what we focus on. It almost draws a parallel with the quote – whether you believe you can or not, you are right. In this article, I’d like to talk about the power of focus and the need to concentrate on possibilities rather than fear.

“What we see depends mainly on what we look for”

John Lubbock

The central theme of motivation for this article is – Fear forces us to think about desperation whereas a dream asks us to be inspired. It draws beautiful energy from within which is about passion, joy and desire to do something whereas fear can sometimes push you into avoiding circumstances rather than creating some adventurous ones.

What we see depends on what we look for meaning

It is very interesting to draw a parallel between the different quotes. But they are all trying to say the same thing. Our focus has a lot of power to define our actions – what we see depends on what we look for.

It reminds me of an old adage where a young man asks a wise one as to why there is so much misery in this world and his answer was as simple as – Because that is what you are trying to see. If you turned around and looked at the happy people, your perception would be different.

It doesn’t mean that we turn a blind eye to things that are not great. But, it means that we take it all with a pinch of salt. Although the quote sounds very philosophical, I would rather argue about its practical aspect.

What does what we see depend on?

We ought to ask a few questions to understand the meaning of what we see depends on what we look for. Some of the common questions to ask are:

Is the glass half full or half empty? – Are you motivated by fear or inspiration? Does a new challenge mean excitement or passion to you? Or, are you worried about the way to make it work?

How do you perceive change – as an opportunity or hindrance? Change might not always be bad. Equally it might not be all rosy. Challenges are natural, but our attitude will make a difference about how we use them to grow.

How to cultivate the habit of curiosity? – Ultimately, it is all about curiosity. Things keep happening to us, we have to define meaning. This meaning helps us cultivate our actions. We can be overwhelmed or excited, but it doesn’t matter until we take useful action. The outcome is not just dependent on our thoughts. The most important thing is to figure out what we do about it.

Who said what you see depends on what you’re looking for?

This quote is attributed to John Lubbock. You will find most of his quotes about nature and drawing a semblance to our behaviour. This quote of his is my favourite considering its impact and hint at a sense of optimism about our challenges in life.

Who is John Lubbock?

John Lubbock was a 19th-century politician, poet, writer and philanthropist. He is most known for his contributions to archaeology, architecture and evolutionary theory.

You can find traces of his inspiration from Charles Darwin and his writings inspired by nature as you will find in his collection of quotes. You can find more about John Lubbock on this Wiki Page detailing who is John Lubbock.

John Lubbock Quotes

Most of John Lubbock quotes have a sense of nature and balance imbued into them. You will find this similar in the quote of what we see depends on what we look for. We discuss the meaning of this quote slightly later on in this article.

I wanted to present a few of John Lubbock Quotes that have inspired me in formulating this article. You can find the complete collection of his quotes on the Goodreads page.

• Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.
• What we do see depends mainly on what we look for. … In the same field, the farmer will notice the crop, the geologists the fossils, botanists the flowers, artists the colouring, and sportsmen the cover for the game. Though we may all look at the same things, it does not all follow that we should see them.
• Our great mistake in education is, as it seems to me, the worship of book-learning–the confusion of instruction and education. We strain the memory instead of cultivating the mind. 
• A day of worry is more exhausting than a week of work.
• If we are ever in doubt what to do, it is a good rule to ask ourselves what we shall wish on the morrow that we had done.

Focus on the limitations

As a student with a couple of days before the exam, I used to fret about all the things I didn’t know. This clouded my confidence and I would find myself dreading how to tackle the things that I didn’t know. Unfortunately, it compromised my ability on the things that I knew quite well. The same pattern continues each time I focus on what I don’t know. However, there’s some power to it. The fear is telling us that there’s something that we need to prepare. Sometimes, we might not be able to solve a problem, but we can prepare for its consequences or accept that as an outcome. Denial doesn’t help!

But one thing is true, each time I held my focus on this, I was so conscious about the mishap happening that I almost ensured each time that it really happened. I guess we all are careful as people and we do not like to make any mistakes. And it so happens that this consciousness sometimes overtakes us and all we can think about is the mistake or the fear. And sometimes the fear gets the better of us.

It comes back to the statement about – what we see depends on what we look for. If we look for reasons why we can feel powerful and confident, it changes our approach. It will be a lousy explanation if I start talking about focusing to ignore the problems around us. But we cannot let fear alone overtake us completely and make us feel numb and powerless. It needs to be a fair balance.

What we see: What is the purpose of fear?

It makes us think about the worst of situations and true enough the chances of that happening are more when we focus more on it. Some may argue that this fear is helping us prepare for the worst situation. I completely agree with you. Fear is a really good thing, but truth is that it is a very good servant.

But as a master, it has its own way of screwing our lives up completely. I am not suggesting living in denial, but I am certainly suggesting being aware of our choices and being aware of our focus. If we are focusing and viewing only the things we are afraid of – it is a very bad subset to focus our energies on. At the end of this tunnel, we don’t see any light, but more limitations to hold us back and make us feel miserable.

The purpose of fear is to show us awareness and highlight what we miss seeing in the world of optimism. But what we see depends on what we look for: If we look for only fear, that will be our entire truth/perception. Is that real?

What we look for: Focus on the positives

If we have a greater chance at success by focusing on the positives, then why not create it as a habit instead of responding to our cultural training of guilt and feeling bad about it. People don’t have much time for sympathy in this world. Results matter here and we can get there better and faster the moment we start focusing on solutions than problems and the negativity around us.

There is a reason that these positive quotes sustain and this very well might be one. This is our thought for the day – Be careful what you focus on, it might very well be your next reality!

References:

https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/415473.John_Lubbock

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lubbock,_1st_Baron_Avebury