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It’s been said that “sight is a faculty, but seeing is an art,” and New York University social psychology professor, Emily Balcetis, fully concurs. In her new book, “Clearer, Closer, Better: How Successful People See the World” she says highly successful people tend to view the world differently – and the good news is that the “art” they apply to visual perception can be taught & learned.
When it comes to setting and meeting goals, for example, we may see (quite literally) our plans, progress and potential in the wrong ways. We may inadvertently perceive ourselves as being closer or further from the end depending on our frame of reference. Or we may unwittingly handicap ourselves by focusing too much on the big picture or, at other times, the granular details.
Tapping into rigorous research and cutting-edge discoveries in vision science, Balcetis shares four powerful yet largely untapped visual tactics that successful people masterfully use to set and meet their ambitions – and explains how to use them to your full advantage depending upon the situations you’re in.
Balcetis’s work has special application to leadership and management because it calls out the moments where narrowing one’s focus can provide critical perspective – not to mention those times where widening that view will help us identify needed course corrections. The key is knowing where to direct our attention in any given moment – because that knowledge can help us see the possibilities in life that we might otherwise completely miss.
Emily earned her Ph.D from Cornell University and has lectured at Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Stanford, Berkeley, and the University of Chicago. Her TEDx New York talk has been viewed 3.8 million times. Her book was just published as an Amazon “#1 New Release.” It was also chosen as one of the “20 Books All Leaders Should Read In 2020″ by Wharton Professor, Adam Grant and the World Economic Forum.
