The Role of Perceptual Style Theory™ as a Compass in Personal Growth
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Co-creator of Perceptual Style Theory
Over the last several months, Lynda-Ross and I have been involved in a marketing campaign for our book. We've written guest blogs and participated in radio interviews and podcasts, all to increase awareness and interest in Perceptual Style Theory, the book, and the work we do.
When Perceptual Style Theory Is Misunderstood
Some of these experiences have been fascinating and rewarding, with well-informed hosts, insightful questions, and good dialogue. Others have been strange and uncomfortable, reflecting a lack of familiarity with our material or an attempt to apply Perceptual Style Theory inappropriately.
What insight can Perceptual Style Theory offer on AI? None.
What do Perceptual Style Theory and Attachment Styles have in common? Nothing.
Recently we received an invitation from a sex coach with the pitch that a collaboration with him had the potential to “create some educational and entertaining content for both your clients and listeners.”
After a few chuckles and a little research, we gently but quickly declined the offer. While we promote that we offer “integral, trustworthy, and actionable advice,” it was not the type of action we had in mind! It did cross my mind that a collaboration would make the Neighbors, Opposites, and One-Offs concepts take on a whole new meaning!
Why Personal Growth Has No Shortcuts
In my experience, most of us want easy answers, and the self-help industry is more than happy to oblige us in our search for a shortcut. This is inevitably a promise that there is a way to “get there” without doing the work. The problem is that there are no shortcuts to what most are looking for.
The self-help industry is always coming up with the latest and greatest. Each new book, seminar, and self-help guru promises that happiness is just around the corner if you diligently follow their plan.
Every now and then, one of these really takes off. Suddenly it seems that everyone is reading the book, practicing the advice, and using the new lingo. After a while, the excitement fades until the next latest and greatest comes along.
As the creators and marketers of Perceptual Style Theory, Lynda-Ross and I have been invited multiple times into this dance by those who are looking for “The Answer”. Inevitably, there is disappointment when Perceptual Style Theory cannot deliver an instantaneous miracle.
What Perceptual Style Theory Can and Cannot Do
Perceptual Style Theory is useful in a lot of ways. It can help you to validate the way you see the world. It can help you discover your natural talents and put them to use in your life. It can help you to build effective communication, mitigate conflict, and understand those with a different perspective.
However, Perceptual Style Theory does not do these things by itself. It is a tool that can be used to better understand the territory by providing a map, but it is a map and not the territory. It's not the only map of the territory, just the one that Lynda-Ross and I created and that we find useful enough to offer to others.
The Map Is Not the Territory: Understanding Yourself
Like all maps, Perceptual Style Theory is external. The territory, on the other hand, is internal. The territory is inside of you. It is complex, fraught with complications, challenges, life pain, and contradictions. Understanding the territory is a big part of the life work that we are called to do.
Too often, we get caught up in the quest to solve our lives. By this I mean that we buy into the self-help idea that it is possible to figure things out to the point where life is easy and we are “happy” all the time.
I believe this is an illusion, and it is the inability to achieve it that brings clients to my professional practice. They are busy trying to figure out why life continues to be hard and how they are falling short of what they need to do, be, or discover to make it easy.
They keep looking for answers “out there”, but, as I tell them, the answers are never out and away, they are always in and through.
Personal Growth Begins with Inner Work
Making this shift from outside to inside is the work. It requires that we give up demanding, expecting, and hoping we can find an answer to life that will make it what we want it to be and what we expect it to be. It requires that, as much as possible, we are open to life as it is.
Doing the internal work of facing life as it is, healing your life pain, and growing up emotionally is, as Lynda-Ross so aptly puts it, “like getting a master's degree in you.” Perceptual Style Theory can help you earn that degree!
Using Perceptual Style as a Guide to Self-Discovery
Life is complex, challenging, and often painful, with no clear answers to many of its questions. Perceptual Style Theory can help us make better sense of some of life's challenges, but it remains only a tool.
Perceptual Style Theory is a resource that, like any map, can help you explore the territory. It can give you a new way of looking at things, provide a new vocabulary to make sense of your experience, and point to parts of the territory that are currently unexplored.
The more you understand what Perceptual Style Theory has to offer, including both its strengths and its limitations, the more effectively you can use it. Like any good map, it can help you recognize patterns, explore unfamiliar territory, and discover possibilities you may not have considered.
But the map cannot make the journey for you. Meaningful personal growth requires a willingness to explore your inner world, face life's challenges, and do the work of understanding yourself. Perceptual Style Theory can be a valuable guide along the way, but the journey remains yours.
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About Dr. Gary M. Jordan, Ph.D.
Gary Jordan, Ph.D., has over 35 years of experience in clinical psychology, behavioral assessment, individual development, and coaching. He earned his doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology – Berkeley. He is co-creator of Perceptual Style Theory, a revolutionary psychological assessment system that teaches people how to unleash their deepest potentials for success. He’s a partner at Vega Behavioral Consulting, Ltd., a consulting firm that specializes in helping people discover their true skills and talents.
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