Projection; Plug Me in and Turn on the Lamp!

I was in a meeting the other night when someone shared about their projection of things always being negative.  I could really identify with this.  It's so true, isn't it?  If you break projection down, it's nothing more than our imagination.  Our imagination can take us to beautiful, far away tropical isles or paint us rich and famous doing what we love for a living.  So why then, does it conjur up the dark and negative things when we project?  If you refer to the two definitions below, the first one listed indicates our visualization as being objective.  Yeah, right.  Perhaps in the Cleaver's world.  The second definition suggests we see in others what exists in ourselves.

pro·jec·tion

the act of visualizing and regarding an idea or the like as an objective reality.

-or-

the tendency to ascribe to another person feelings, thoughts, or attitudes present in oneself, or to regard external reality as embodying such feelings, thoughts, etc., in some way.

If we consider projections in the business world, they are based on past facts and stats; real numbers and situations.  Why is it, then, when we project it's all subjective conjecture.  That would get us fired from a corporate job!

Lately, I have turned just about every daily occurrence into a sick guessing came.  I project so frequently that we have a standing joke in the household about plugging me in and switching on the light.  And never, ever are my projections objective or about some positive trait of my own.  That whole "people are our mirrors" thing should be enough incentive for me NOT to project!

That being said, I think I need to be more like the first definition and less like the second.  But to be safe, perhaps I shouldn't project at all!