It may be at the office or even amongst friends when a situation arises that we may think out loud “oh it was a brain fart” or ridicule someone by telling someone “Duh” after explaining something that we think is so elementary. There have been many situations that I can recall, in which I thought, why is it, that this person just doesn’t get it? It’s common sense!

So why do you think that is?

The truth is, it can be any number of reasons, including, but not limited to, our experience, confidence and pride in knowing something to be factually true that blinds us to think it’s common sense. Now sometimes we are correct, but we do so we the utter contempt of the person(s) we are ridiculing.

While we may be correct, it is mostly based on our experiences that present us with our perception of this reality, our reality, whether it is the fact at hand or not. This reality of ours is, though, just that. Ours. Not everyone else’s and while there may be others around you that share that perception, it is not necessarily the same for others.

When we analyze something, we tend to view it based on our history and experience related to these types of matters. This experience and intuition has helped us get where we are today, but does not in anyway make our reality the truth or everyone’s reality. This remains true until we encounter a situation that we have never before and find ourselves very curious or speechless. Then we may feel like the ones who just don’t get it. Those that are not afraid to ask, even though it is not common sense to us at the time, will get it, yet, we will then expect the next person to get it faster than we did.

If you perceive something to be common sense, it is based on your experiences and not the other persons. For them to see it as you do would require similar experiences and that, as we know is not that common at all. When we begin to take for granted that something is common sense, we lose sight of the reality of the world around us, and only view it based on our experiences and that makes it very subjective and not very common. Rather, it is something that makes sense to You, perhaps to a few others, not necessarily “Common sense”.

I was once asked by a financial client to create a presentation on troubleshooting technical issues. It turned out that I made the presentation around the logic behind troubleshooting, with a focus on the technical and I kept thinking to myself, this is such an elementary presentation.. Everyone already knows all this.. it wont go over well.

It turned out the presentation was a success. While some agreed it was common sense, all found it very useful and most didn’t see it as common sense. I even had people tell me they had success with the suggestions made in the presentation.

What does make something common sense, in my opinion, is if the majority of people in the room, office, industry fully understand the concept, then it becomes common sense. Then again, I don’t think any of us have surveyed all of them. Which, in the absence of the aforementioned, makes it again; our perception based on experience and or an article we read and assume everyone else has too.

Don’t assume someone doesn’t have common sense unless it is explained to him or her in a way that would convey the reasoning based on the way they perceive things. We have all been in the situation that we just aren’t grasping something until someone says something minor, whether it could be a simple word, phrase or even the same thing they had said before, just the way they said it, just clicked. Now in contrary to what I have heard many people say and that is “Perception is reality”. Perception is NOT reality. Your perception is Your reality, not necessarily everyone else’s reality. If you perceive something to be common sense, doesn’t mean everyone else does too.

Now let me say, that there are certainly situations especially at work, where a person in the position that they are in, should already know certain basic elements, because it should have come up in their experience. Just remember, we have all been in that situation at one point.

Don’t judge others by thinking or saying they don’t have common sense, unless you have lived their life and can explain the idea to them in a way they will comprehend and I am just as guilty as charged. Something to always remember, especially in this holiday season.

Make it a resolution for next year.