Looking is seeing.

I heard a long time ago that "perception is everything." I have never argued this. Perception can change completely what happens to you. The two ways that I have applied this in the past have been in the modification of what is seen or experienced and the translation of what is seen or experienced.

Modification of what is seen or experienced:
This is what the US court system runs into daily. There are three eye witnesses to a carjacking. One person sees the car as being red, one sees it as blue, and still the other sees green.
Translation of what is seen or experienced:
This is how someone takes of handles a situation. If someone criticizes me: I can take is negatively, get upset, and debate giving up or I can take it as a tip, get happy that they care enough to criticize me, and become motivated to do better. The experience has not changed at all but the outcome can be extremely different.

So, for a long time these were the only two 'abilities of perception' I lumped together. Just yesterday though, I realized yet another to add to this.
Selective Seeing of what is seen or experienced.
Many years ago I realized that I started to see more of something when I began looking for it. For instance, I want to buy a certain kind of car. All of a sudden I start to see this car everywhere I go. Makes me wonder what I miss because I am not looking for it. Should I see it if I am not looking for it though? Is it a automatic defense system to not allow certain things to happen or be seen until I am ready and looking?
This last thing is the most intriguing to me out of the three. Mostly because it seems to be at the top of the ladder; the first filter.
The new thing is that I have never included this last one into the big bucket of 'perception'. Now it effects what is seen, the attributes of what is seen, and then how it is seen. Pretty insane how different the world could be after these three filters.