The Perspective-Over-Perception Reset
Remove emotion, zoom out, and choose action from the whole situation.
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 97%
Hadad distinguishes perception from perspective as a practical reset for a victim mentality. Perception asks how the world is affecting him personally, which keeps emotion and self-interest at the center of the interpretation. Perspective moves to a bird's-eye view: temporarily remove his identity from the case, examine how the same conditions affect anyone in that position, and reason from the wider system. The reset is not complete until it produces agency. Hadad argues that nobody else will do the work on a person's behalf and challenges the idea that venting alone has historically created results. The sequence therefore moves from emotional pause, to depersonalized mapping, to a concrete action within the person's control. It helps separate a legitimate structural problem from the unproductive belief that complaint itself is progress.
Origin
Hadad described this reset while discussing mortgage brokers who use an industry community to vent about rates, inventory, regulation, and lost business rather than redirecting that energy into productive action.
Core principles
- 01Emotion narrows a problem to its immediate effect on you.
- 02Perspective examines how the same situation affects everyone involved.
- 03A bird's-eye view is more useful than a self-protective story.
- 04Venting is not a substitute for action that changes the situation.
How to run it
- 1
Remove the first emotion
Pause long enough to identify anger, fear, embarrassment, or frustration before treating the first interpretation as fact.
Pro tip Write the emotional reaction separately from the observable events.
Watch out Removing emotion means preventing it from controlling the analysis, not denying that it exists.
- 2
Take the bird's-eye view
Describe the situation as if another person occupied your role, then map the other people and constraints involved.
Pro tip Replace 'How is this happening to me?' with 'How would this affect anyone here?'.
- 3
Separate structure from story
Identify which constraints are externally real and which conclusions come from a self-focused interpretation.
Watch out A wider perspective should not be used to excuse genuine wrongdoing.
- 4
Choose owned action
Select a specific step you can execute rather than waiting for the industry, community, or critic to solve the problem.
Pro tip Prefer an action that creates evidence, such as a meeting, call, experiment, or revised message.
In the wild
The host observes that mortgage professionals were venting in the AIM community during a difficult rate and inventory environment. Hadad proposes looking in the mirror, removing emotion, considering the wider situation, and redirecting energy toward useful activity instead of expecting complaint to restore business.
→ The problem becomes a prompt for owned action rather than proof that the individual is powerless.
Common mistakes
Calling perception perspective
A detailed account of how an event affects you is still self-centered perception if it excludes the wider system.
Suppressing instead of examining emotion
The goal is to prevent emotion from controlling the decision, not to pretend the reaction does not exist.
Ending with analysis
The reset has little value if the broader view does not lead to a concrete action within your control.
Is it for you?
Best for
Leaders and professionals responding to criticism, regulation, market pressure, or other emotionally charged constraints.
Not ideal for
Situations where immediate danger, discrimination, or misconduct requires protection, reporting, or expert intervention before reflection.
From the transcript
“you have to do the best to take the emotion out of the situation first and foremost”
“you have to have perspective perspective is a bird's eye view”
“forget that it's John Hadad in this situation how would this impact anybody in this situation outside of the fact that it's just me”
From the episode
Breaking the Mortgage Mold: Jonathon Haddad's Journey