We meet others as a headline.
We meet ourselves as a full autobiography.
So we compress people into labels—rude, careless, incompetent.
And we expand ourselves into explanations—pressure, timing, constraints, intent.
This is the Perspective & Motivation Attribution Model.
From the outside, a person looks like a trait.
From the inside, a person feels like a situation.
Their one act becomes their identity.
Our one act becomes an exception.
Their failure becomes “who they are.”
Our failure becomes “what happened to us.”
And here’s the uncomfortable truth:
our reasoning is often not a search for what is true—
it is a search for what is forgivable.
The mind is not just a storyteller.
It is also a lawyer.
Wisdom begins when we offer others the same context, we demand for ourselves—
and hold ourselves to the same standards we casually apply to others.
So, what could be the road map forward?
Awareness is the start of moving forward. We start by noticing Perspective & Motivation in folks around us- through their articulations and behaviour. We then turn the searchlight onto our own selves. And we become observers of our own Perspective & Motivation afflictions…….
In Musing…….. Shakti Ghosal
A New Beginning 
Aloha Shakti, have you ever familiarize yourself with the Enneagram model? It is based on an ancient system that identifies our primary driving forces, among other things. For some people indeed it is the head. For others like Chris and me, it is the gut. Yet for others it is the heart. These are gross oversimplifications. And while I appreciate the model you’ve illustrated, I don’t fit well into that particular paradigm, thus I am offering this model as well, should you choose to explore it. It is of course not the only model that I have reviewed, not by a longshot. But for me, it just allows for a greater understanding of people being so diverse.
This guy is probably my favorite interpreter. We are also friends, as we met in the Enneagram teacher training many years ago:
Blessings, Shakti. 🙏🌺♥️
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Hello Bela,
As always, it is always such a pleasure to hear from you.
To be frank, I have not been aware of the Enneagram model. I would love to know some more. I would surely look up on the link you have provided.
I find the perspective motivation tool a simple one to explain how we are quick to condemn others as also broad brush them into categories based on ‘Right or Wrong, Good or Bad, Yes or No…and so on’.However, when we ourselves find ourselves in a similar situation, we go to great lengths to rationalize the ‘whys’ and the ‘Hows’ of our actions.
Thank you once again. Stay well.
Shakti
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Haha, Shakti, typical human behavior, I think! I also think we waste So much time justifying stuff. At this point in life, I just let people think what they will and go on with my life. I don’t have the compulsion to be ‘liked’ as I did when younger. Thank heaven for that! Blessings, always. 🙏🏽
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Lovely musing Bela. It so resonates. Thank you bringing this in.
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☺️
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