What’s an Observation?

To observe without evaluating is the highest form of intelligence.
- Jiddu Krishnamurti

When we think and communicate based on pure observation, needs and requests, we increase the likelihood for movement, connection and fulfillment.

For the sake of increasing fulfillment, I invite you to replace the use of “observation” as it is colloquially used (to mean “to state an opinion or conclusion”) with a sense of speaking about the world in observations that are without conclusion, assessment, opinion, or judgement.

Observation is:
- the act of making and recording a measurement. Ex: “Three times this week”. Therefore “always”, “never”, and “sometimes” are not observations, but assessments. “You never XYZ,” is not an observation. “Twice last week you didn’t XYZ…,” may be an observation.

Observation is:
- recognizing and noting some fact or occurrence. Ex: “The door closed.” Therefore, interpretation is not the same as observation, “you slammed the door” is an interpretation. “I have not heard you tell me back what I’m saying” is an observation. “You’re not listening,” is an interpretation.

Observation is:
- recognizing and noting some fact or occurrence. Ex: “I asked twice and twice he said ‘no’,” is an observation. “He is stubborn,” is a label, an assessment, an opinion, a judgment.

Observation is:
- recognizing and noting some fact or occurrence. Ex: “I have met 2 people who earned more than I earn who I did not like,” is an observation. “Rich people are mean, they think they’re entitled,” are generalizations, categorizations (ie: assessments, not observations).

Observation is:
- recognizing and noting some fact or occurrence, without making meaning. Ex: “1000 suicide bombers died last year,” is an observation. “The world is being overrun by suicide bombers,” is an extrapolation of you making meaning, your opinion / conclusion that doesn’t represent a fact.

Observation is:
- free of judgment, opinion, analysis, assessment, generalization, or interpretation. Ex: “I observe that 3 days last week you told me you were busy,” is an observation. “I observe that she’s pathological,” is not an observation, it’s an assessment, an analysis, regardless of the fact that the word ‘observe’ is being used. “She is wearing a red hat,” is an observation. “She’s dressed strangely,” is an opinion.

Think of it this way – if someone can argue with you on your statement or debate the validity of it, or if it could not be recorded on a video or on tape, then it’s likely not an observation.

How are your powers of observation?

FACT OR THOUGHT?
For each of these sentences would you assess it as an observation or as an opinion? If you think the sentence is an opinion, how might it be changed to qualify as an observation?

- The world is falling apart.
- I’m having a bizarre day.
- You’re just PMSing.
- He’s difficult.
- He hung up on me 3 times! He’s a jerk!
- You’re a terrific dancer.
- You’re the best dancer I’ve ever danced with.
- I love how you waltz.
- I notice I’m obsessing.
- I notice I’m spending more than 2 hours a day thinking about it.
- I observed that he was too impatient to talk to me.
- She said it in a threatening tone of voice. Everyone would agree!

Yes.

“If you think you can, or if you think you can’t, you’re right.”
– Henry Ford

Torment and Inspiration

From Chuck Lorre:

I recently spoke with a man who is tormented. He thinks he is tormented because he thinks he has a tormentor. He cannot think of a scenario wherein he leaves his tormentor and thus ends his torment. He thinks his only path to serenity is to destroy his tormentor. He thinks the appropriate weapon to accomplish this task is a lawyer. This got me to thinking that perhaps thinking was the real source of his torment. But how can that be? Don’t we value thinking? Don’t we worship great thinkers? How can this God-given gift that separates us from the animals be deemed a curse? Isn’t the alternative to thinking, stupidity? Or is there another alternative? Ask yourself this question, “When I have a good idea, do I think my way to it, or does it just hit me?” Which brings me to the theme of this vanity card (finally). I’d like to suggest that we all have inspiration at our disposal at all times. How does inspiration work? How the hell would I know? I just know it’s there. Nothing else but inspiration explains a great work of art, and nothing else but thinking could be responsible for making all those “Lethal Weapon” movies. I mentioned all this to the tormented man. I told him that perhaps he could find a solution to his troubles by quitting thinking and being open to inspiration. He said he thought I was a moron and threw his shoe at me. It just hit me.

Meaning of Success

from Chuck Lorre

“It’s strange to think of one’s life as analogous to climbing a mountain. It’s even stranger to discover, after years of striving to reach the summit, that it’s the wrong mountain. This is what happened to Dave. Dave spent twenty years climbing the wrong mountain. And yet he had to consider it time well-spent. After all, no one could have told him he was relentlessly scaling the wrong pile of dirt (not that they didn’t try). Dave had to find out for himself. Which is why, in the perverse way life happily screws with us, it turned out to be exactly the right mountain. In order to see things clearly, to understand the actuality of his existence, Dave had to crawl up a treacherous incline that only led to happiness in his poorly-formed, childish dreams. There was never an alternative mountain for ol’ Dave, because he was incapable of envisioning one. So he climbed. Until one day, he looked around and saw that he’d reached the top. The pinnacle. The apex. The place where eagles crap. And that’s when he noticed the mountain he was always meant to climb far off in the distance. And he noticed something else… everyone climbing that mountain was truly happy. So Dave did the only thing a sane man could do in his situation, he sent word to those people and told them they were on the wrong mountain.”

Living Alive

“He not busy being born is busy dying.”
– Bob Dylan

Unconventional

“Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else.”
– Margaret Mead

Veils…

The veils begin to lift, you know, once defenses begin to fall.
Be vulnerable.
The Universe

image thanks to dreamstime

The Present – take 2

“We know nothing of tomorrow; our business is to be good and happy today.”

– Sydney Smith

An Opening for Values-Based Awareness

“Chaung Tzu insisted that judgments like right and wrong, good and evil, fair and unfair were just mental habits, ideas that had gained currency through repeated used rather than through inherent truth.”

J. Geary, Geary’s Guide to the World’s Great Aphorists, p. 227

Let’s try on the coat for a moment and imagine this to be true. If “good/bad”, “right/wrong”, “fair/unfair” are simply cultural habits – what’s the alternative?

On what basis do we assert “good/bad”, “right/wrong”, “fair/unfair”? What barometer do we use to measure this?

If we had a more powerful, more life-serving way of expressing, what would it be?

Sending playful smiles,
Gail

Impossible? Too hard? Etc?

“Argue for your limitations and sure enough they will be yours.”

– Richard Bach