Sunday, August 12th, was my wife's birthday. We had been to Nashville, Tennessee on Saturday night and were driving back to Atlanta Sunday. I asked her if there was anything she wanted to do, special for her birthday. She thought a minute and said, "Yes. I want to see Rock City." Now, if you have ever traveled in the southeastern United States, you have seen "SEE ROCK CITY" painted on barns and billboards. They reach into Ohio and nearly as far as Washington, DC. To the west, they extend at least to the Mississippi River.

Neither one of us had ever been to Rock City. It was so different than what we imagined that now we have trouble trying to remember what we imagined it was all our lives. It was delightful and only slightly tacky (we probably thought it was completely tacky).

So goes our impressions. This is important in business. Our perceptions about matters, and that can be our equipment, suppliers, people and so forth is most likely different than what conditions really are. Like our view of Rock City, we spend time paying attention to our perceptions and ignore what might be really helpful. Roll around a few of your mental perceptions of conditions around you, then check them out in reality. You may find the solution to a nagging problem.