Your Map of Reality: How Your Beliefs Influence How You See the World

What we believe to be true has a huge impact on our lives. All beliefs guide our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors on a daily basis, even if they aren’t based on factual information.

A belief such as “It’s bad luck to step on a crack on the sidewalk” may seem superstitious and silly to many people, but to the person who believes it to be true, they will spend a lot of their focus and energy making sure they walk carefully and avoid stepping on a crack.

Most beliefs influence our behavior in a similar way, depending on what the belief is and how important it is to us.

Every belief you hold to be true is a part of your “map of reality,” and this shapes how you see the world and how you navigate your life.

Every map reveals different paths, so depending on what your “map of reality” is can greatly influence the directions you choose to go in life.

People can lead wildly different lifestyles depending on what their core beliefs and values are.

A deeply religious person may live a quiet lifestyle abstaining from material luxury or pleasure, a passionate social activist lives a certain lifestyle expressing themselves and promoting their philosophy to help others, or a rich CEO lives a life centered around making money and expanding their business.

Each person holds different core values that govern how they choose to live.

We all must decide what we value in life, even everyday moral questions like “How should I teat others?” or “What is the purpose of life?” are thoughts that occupy every human mind at one point or another.

Your answers to those types of big questions reveal how you see the world and what you think the best way to live is.

Your “map of reality” matters. It’s one of the most important things when determining where you will end up in life, because it’s your ultimate perspective or worldview.

Do you ever reflect on how you truly see the world and how it influences the way you interact with it?

Everyone has a belief system

Every single person has a belief system whether they are aware of it or not.

A nihilist who believes “nothing has inherent value” or an atheist who believes “God doesn’t exist” still has a belief system or map of reality. And that belief system is still influencing how they see the world and interact with it.

The human mind is a “belief factory.” We are constantly observing our environment, inferring things about it, and choosing what to do with this knowledge and how to apply it to our future decisions.

In many ways, that’s the main purpose behind thinking: to reflect on the problems we encounter in the world and try our best to solve them so we can navigate life more effectively.

This is why we often spend most of our time thinking about things we feel need to be “fixed” or “solved.” For most people, there’s little to ruminate about when everything is going fine. Positive thinking – such as being grateful or reflecting on your strengths – is something that usually only comes with conscious practice.

From an evolutionary standpoint, the ability to think and solve complex problems allowed us to adapt to our environment in unprecedented ways. It’s what eventually led to science, technology, and advancements in civilization that gave us greater power and control over our world.

Beliefs help us navigate reality. They provide us a way of viewing our world, analyzing it, and making decisions.

In short, beliefs make decision-making easier, because they give us a framework for observing reality and making quick judgements about it, without having to construct a new “map” for every single choice. Without a map of reality, we’d constantly need to observe every detail in our environment and make decisions from scratch.

Everything we’ve ever learned can be considered a belief, even simple facts such as “2+2=4” are beliefs, because people can always believe in something different, such as “2+2=5” (though that belief will likely hurt your ability to navigate life effectively).

In this way, all beliefs are a product of our learning; and every decision we make reflects a conscious or unconscious belief about ourselves and the world.

The more you accept and understand your core beliefs (“map of reality”), the more you’ll understand your daily actions and choices in life.

The map is not the territory

In general, our map of reality is always imperfect and inaccurate.

There’s a popular saying that “the map is not the territory.” This was an idea first coined by the Polish scientist and philosopher Alfred Korzybski.

The basic idea is when we create a representation of reality – such as through mental concepts or even physical representations like a map of a geographical region – we have to remember that the representation is never the object itself.

The representation is always a “best fit” model of reality.

Ideally, the map has useful information that helps us make important decisions, but we know it isn’t 100% accurate or that it contains every single fact or detail.

Think about it: if you wanted a 100% accurate map of, say, Iceland, then it would have to be the size and shape of Iceland to truly contain ALL information about Iceland.

Clearly, this is impractical.

Our brains already know this. They don’t just observe reality “as is,” they are always filtering, deleting, or generalizing information through our senses to turn it into a practical framework for reality.

Your brain isn’t concerned about “absolute truths” about the universe – it just wants “practical truths” that help you function effectively throughout your immediate environment. Your brain is ultimately a pragmatist.

Beliefs are only useful to the extent that they help us make better decisions and navigate life more effectively, but they shouldn’t be confused with actual reality.

As Thich Nhat Hanh once said, “A finger pointing at the moon is not the moon. The finger is needed to know where to look for the moon, but if you mistake the finger for the moon itself, you will never know the real moon.”

Our “map of reality” works the same way. It is designed to point us in a direction, but it shouldn’t be confused with reality itself.

What influences our beliefs?

The truth is we don’t create our “map of reality” all on our own, it is often based on other people’s maps.

We like to think that we come up with our belief system solely on our own without outside influence; after all, they are my beliefs and I’m smart, so I probably chose good ones! Right?

Our “map of reality” begins forming at a very early age as soon as we can begin to think, observe patterns, and make connections.

During the beginning stages of our learning, we often don’t even question what we are told is true – we just take it for granted, and then the belief sticks with us for a lifetime.

To start, it’s important to at least be aware of the many factors that shape your current “map of reality.”

Key factors that influence our beliefs include:

• Parents and Upbringing – Our earliest beliefs are often learned through our parents and upbringing. At an early age, we begin to observe and develop thought patterns that reflect our inner parent, adult, and child, which shapes our early personality and attitude toward life. Many of these early beliefs continue to influence the way we think, feel, and behave later in life (especially when we don’t step back and question them).
• Education – In addition to our parents and family, we also pick up many early beliefs through public (or private) school and formal education. What you learn in classes like Science, Math, History, and Literature gradually absorb into your worldview and perspective; and whether a school is “good” or “bad,” it will have a long-term influence on a person. Both information and misinformation through school can stick with a person for a lifetime if it remains unquestioned. This is why everyone – from teachers, to activists, to propagandists, to marketers – emphasize the importance of teaching certain ideas at an early age. In general, children’s minds are the most flexible during this time, so what they are exposed to is critical to their later development.
  

• Culture and Media – Everyone’s lives also takes place in a particular culture that influences their attitude and belief system. This entails growing up within a certain tradition, religion, or political system, but it also includes what we consume through media such as movies, music, TV, books, news, and advertisements. The information pyramid is one tool I use to analyze the information I’m consuming on a daily basis and evaluating its effects on me.
• Role Models – Throughout life we often grow to admire and look up to certain people. A single person we hold in high regard can have a big influence over our mindset and attitude. This includes “authority figures” such as parents, teachers, and priests, but it can also include role models we come across later in life, such as individual friends or family members, as well as famous musicians, athletes, scientists, artists, writers, actors, philosophers, celebrities, and even fictional characters we wish to be like.
• Past Experiences – Our past experiences and memories also play a crucial role in developing our overall “map of reality,” especially how we see ourselves. A single bad experience can change your entire perspective on something. For example, early memories of social rejection may lead a person to believe “I’m not likable,” or “Everyone hates me.” And those thought patterns can grow to become a self-fulfilling prophecy later in life, only continuing the pattern of negative relationships and strengthening your current “map of reality.” This is why one big component to self-improvement is learning how to debunk your negative beliefs about yourself, by actively searching for evidence that goes against it. Then you can begin to build on new experiences to reshape how you see yourself.
• Self-Learning – Education doesn’t end after you finish school. There comes a point in life when you have to become more of a self-learner by actively doing your own research and learning about new things. This can include a range of activities from reading books and articles, listening to podcasts, watching documentaries, or having conversations with people who know more than you in a certain subject. A person who never stops learning is someone who is always updating their map of reality. They recognize their map is always imperfect and inaccurate, so there is always something new to learn.
• Reflection and Introspection – We don’t just consume information and accept it, we also analyze it and reflect on it. Two people can have the same exact experience but two completely different interpretations depending on what they take away from it. That’s the power of reframing and cognitive restructuring. We all need time to reflect and digest our experiences, whether through active contemplation, writing in a journal, being creative, or spending time in nature. At the end of the day, how you frame what you learn will make a big difference in your overall “map of reality.”

This is just a quick overview of the many factors that can shape your “map of reality.”

The most important thing is to be aware of these influences – just recognizing where a belief is coming from can disempower its control over you.

As you become more aware, you can begin analyzing and questioning more – and finding ways you can change or update your “map of reality” to something that better serves you and your goals.

Be open to changing your beliefs in the face of new information and new experiences.

You don’t have to change your beliefs right away, just be open to the possibility of new ways of thinking about the world and seeing reality.

Simply being more flexible in your thinking will allow your “map of reality” to update and evolve naturally over-time.

Every individual has their own window into the world. That’s why our society has such a wide-range of different thoughts, opinions, and beliefs.

Keep in mind that one person’s map of reality may not necessarily work for someone else. You can’t just copy someone else’s map, you’re going to have to create your own eventually.

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