To better understand the concept of Dr. Glasser’s “quality world”, I think it helpful to view it more as a quality “collage.”
You remember what a collage is right?
A hodgepodge collection of pictures and artifacts to express some idea or concept!
Well, to understand the quality world, think of it as a collage of EVERYTHING that means SOMETHING to you!
We are talking thoughts, actions, belief systems, and religious structures. We are talking people, places, and things. We are talking about real life creatures as well as mystical, fantasy creations. We are talking about items and things from the past, present and future.
Simply put, your quality world is everything you hold near and dear to your heart. The more important stuff floats to the top of the quality world, usually represented by large words or pictures. As the world goes down, the size fluctuates with the importance, meaning images of say your mother in law may be at the very bottom and hard to see. But she’s still there, because she’s important!
The way it can be theorized that we build relationships is by sharing parts of our quality world with the people in our lives. The more our quality world overlaps with another person’s, the more likely we are to form strong bonds!
In life, there is a zig for every zag, a drip for every drop, a yin for every yang… For reality therapy, the quality world’s equal and opposite counter part is the… PERCEIVED WORLD!
This ‘perceived world’ is the world that is created by our perceptions and senses. It is ran through what Dr. Glasser refers to as a “total knowledge filter” and a “valuating filter.” By utilizing these filters, everything and I mean everything is tagged with a positive, negative or neutral label. By understanding a person’s perceived world, we can better figure out steps to help our quality world overlap and interact more appropriately!
To help with this comparison, Dr. Glasser suggests to envision a sort of “comparison scale” inside of your mind. One side of the scale has your quality world. The other side of the scale has the perceived world. In the middle is the “comparing place”, where the magic happens as Dr. Glasser states new behavior will not be generated without signals from the scales. The more effective control we gain over our thoughts and beliefs, the more the scales remain in tune and balanced.
In closing…
…what makes up YOUR quality world?
August West Wellness 