(Thanks to Nandakumar Karta for asking the Q&A “What is the difference between perception and perspective?” which has triggered my thoughts)

Perception is what u see with the eyes whereas perspective is what u conclude with your mind, emotions, feelings and soul. Perceptions is usually used wrt the external objects whereas perspective is wrt cultures, people, situations and your viewpoint about them.

Sometimes skewed perceptions can lead to faulty deductions, conclusions and wrong perceptives. You become what u think about and your perspectives define how u respond and soon your perspectives will be who u are.

Perception as a noun means:

· the act or faculty of apprehending by means of the senses or of the mind; cognition; understanding.

· immediate or intuitive recognition or appreciation, as of moral, psychological, or aesthetic qualities; insight; intuition; discernment: an artist of rare perception.

· the result or product of seeing / perceiving, as distinguished from the act of perceiving; percept.

· Psychology. a single unified awareness derived from sensory processes while a stimulus is present.

· Law. the taking into possession of rents, crops, profits, etc.

Actually it is what you see. There are many examples of optical illusions to prove that what u see and/or perceive may not always be what is actually there. Sometimes there are 2 images hidden within one image; many objects hidden all over a picture which u may not perceive at the first glance. Is it an old lady or a young girl? frog or banana? Crooked lines or parallel? Moving circles or stationary ones?

It is one of the commonest of mistakes to consider that the limit of our power of perception is also the limit of all there is to perceive. ~ C. W. Leadbeater
Only in quiet waters do things mirror themselves undistorted. Only in a quiet mind is adequate perception of the world. ~ Hans Margolius
People only see what they are prepared to see. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
What the caterpillar calls the end, the rest of the world calls a butterfly. ~ Lao-tzu

The perfect no-stress environment is the grave. When we change our perception we gain control. The stress becomes a challenge, not a threat. When we commit to action, to actually doing something rather than feeling trapped by events, the stress in our life becomes manageable. ~ Greg Anderson
There is no truth. There is only perception. ~ Gustave Flaubert
Generally, about all perception, we can say that a sense is what has the power of receiving into itself the sensible forms of things without the matter, in the way in which a piece of wax takes on the impress of a signet ring without the iron or gold. ~ Aristotle

Perception deals with mostly what the eyes see; and deals with mere objects. Perspectives deal with events, our reactions to them. Thus mistakes of perception are not as harmful as those of perspective.

Perspective deals with the full range of thoughts, emotions, feelings, prior experience, culture attitudes and conditioning that a person brings towards the events that happen in their lives. It deals with our attitudes, our beliefs and our interpretations to what we have perceived: over the years we build up these perspectives – nearly unconscious assumptions that we often make; and this hinders our objective analysis of new situations.

Perspective may mean: is a point of view; this is defined by the earlier experiences, the emotions, the feelings and the entire backlog wrt this current event. Different people have a different perspective (way of understanding, thinking about and dealing with) the same set of circumstances.

Literally, in visual topics:

• Perspective (visual), the way in which objects appear to the eye. A view or vista.
• Perspective (graphical), representing the effects of visual perspective in drawings. The relationship of aspects of a subject to each other and to a whole: a perspective of history; a need to view the problem in the proper perspective. The appearance of objects in depth as perceived by normal binocular vision. The technique of representing three-dimensional objects and depth relationships on a two-dimensional surface.

Metaphorically, in relation to cognitive topics:

• Perspective (cognitive), one's "point of view", the choice of a context for opinions, beliefs and experiences. Subjective evaluation of relative significance; a point of view: the perspective of the displaced homemaker.
• Point of view (literature), the related experience of the narrator
• Perspective (psychological), or wisdom: The ability to perceive things in their actual interrelations or comparative importance: tried to keep my perspective throughout the crisis.
• A mental view or outlook: "It is useful occasionally to look at the past to gain a perspective on the present" (Fabian Linden). The relationship of aspects of a subject to each other and to a whole: a perspective of history; a need to view the problem in the proper perspective.

Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth. Marcus Aurelius
In order to keep a true perspective of one's importance, everyone should have a dog that will worship him and a cat that will ignore him. ~ Anonymous
Laugh at yourself and at life. Not in the spirit of derision or whining self-pity, but as a remedy, a miracle drug, that will ease your pain, cure your depression, and help you to put in perspective that seemingly terrible defeat and worry with laughter at your predicaments, thus freeing your mind to think clearly toward the solution that is certain to come. Never take yourself too seriously. Og Mandino

Meditation and wisdom, maturity wrt emotions and behavior helps in an objective perspective or gives us the ability to see a bigger picture … in which the success or failure which now confronts us is a mere speck in the collage of our life. Struggles and obstacles are Gods Blessings on us thru which He moulds and shapes us to better fit the purpose for which God had created us.

Meditation is the soul's perspective glass. ~ Owen Felltham
Wisdom is your perspective on life, your sense of balance, your understanding of how the various parts and principles apply and relate to each other. It embraces judgment, discernment, comprehension. It is a gestalt or oneness, and integrated wholeness. ~Stephen Covey

About the Author: With 24 years Communication Software experience, Naseem Mariam is a Senior Engineering Manager with an MNC in Chennai, South India. Her husband is an ERP Consultant and they have 3 great children. Wrt hobbies she is an Entrepreneur, a Nutrition Advisor, a Writer, Motivational Speaker and Soft Skills Coach. She has authored 2 eBooks and you can Google “Naseem Mariam” for her articles on Self development, Customer Expectations, Project Management & People skills. You can read her blogs at Silicon India, Follow her on twitter @amaryam & Meet her at Chennai Meetups http://tinyurl.com/dcdcky