Understanding Your Own Paradigm

Perception: The Most Powerful Force That Rules Our Life

The lens through which we see the world is known as our perception. The perception we hold is the most important and powerful thing in our life. It shapes the way we think. Our thinking determines our actions. Our action becomes our attitude, behavior, and habits. In a word, our perception is behind our all thinking, actions, attitudes, behaviors and habits. If our perception is wrong, all other subsequent activities and decisions associated with those will also be wrong. It can be compared with a Map. If we wrongly choose a mag, we can never be able to reach the correct destination.

The way we see a problem is the problem.----Stephen R. Covey

Over time, our perception becomes our paradigm. Paradigm is the strong formation or structure in which we live. Most importantly, all other things in our lives are greatly influenced, determined, and conditioned by that.

I am always right

One thing must be reminded that your glass is only fit for you. If you try to see the world through other's glasses, the results will certainly be blur, obscure, or completely wrong. Many of us waste our whole long life, spending years after years trying to be like others and materializing someone's dream. We absolutely forget to discover our own paradigm and live the life which we are not endowed with.

How is Your Perception Shaped and Paradigm Built

From birth, a child is firstly influenced by its parents. It learns the first language to communicate from its mother. Later, a baby starts to be shaped by the whole family and close aids surrounding it. Next, with the course of time, as one gets older, one goes to schools, colleges or universities which play an important role in shaping their personalities. Then, a person works in an organization, gets married, and interacts with more people. Moreover, an individual's country, community, religion, culture, and tradition all contribute to building the complex paradigm which becomes increasingly powerful year after year and gets locked as someone's destiny.

Why is it important to discover your own paradigm

My Paradigm is the best and true one

It is very important to discover our own paradigm and become conscious of that while making any decisions. Every single day, we make dozens of decisions. Those decisions determine whether we will gain or lose, whether we will succeed or fail, whether we will smile or cry. We interact with dozens of people every day and maintain relationships with them. Every wrong decision has its impact not only on us but also on our relations. A failure negatively affects both our independence and interdependence.

As it has already been mentioned that paradigm is your glasses through which you see everything. If anybody has problems in seeing, it itself is the biggest problem. Until and unless it gets corrected, all other things will not work properly. For example, with a wrong map, you always reach the same wrong destination unless you do not change the existing one and choose the correct one.

If we do not discover our own paradigm and determine whether it is wrong or right, all other later things will not be in our hands. In that case, we have to depend on our fate. By chance, it can be right or it can be wrong. It will be more like a gamble. Certainly, our life is not a gamble. We can not let the control of our life go out of our hands and can not let the external factors control our life.

Hundreds of Thousands of Wrong Paradigms and Only a Single True Paradigm

Every single person holds a separate and unique paradigm. That can be either right or wrong. Think of a mathematical problem. The persons who can not solve it can make mistakes in multiple ways. Even all the persons can make the mistake. But there is only one solution although people can reach there in various ways. Also, think of a destination or a place where people can reach from anywhere in the world. Different persons will need different amounts of time, wealth, and energy. But there will also be a group of people who will not be able to reach in the first attempt or can not get there in their lifetime. The persons who will fail during the first attempts have to acknowledge it quickly and start the next stride as quickly as possible because our lifetime on this planet is absolutely very short. We do not have too much time to make repeated mistakes and get those corrected again. That is why we have to discover our own paradigm at the quickest, have to understand it and then, put it on the right track.

What Does It Mean by a True Paradigm?

A true paradigm is one based on principles that are timeless and true for any place or any person. A person with a true paradigm selects a long-term lifelong goal, holds a holistic picture of what s/he wants to be or have, and always prioritizes sticking to that goal in spite of all adversaries. Personal achievement does not only mean personal wellbeing. It needs to be connected with the well-being of others as well. We win and at the same time, pave the path for others to win. We nurse the habit of listening more rather than speaking.

we make a group. We stay together, set up a common goal, accept all struggles together to achieve that. We live a life full of love, affection, joy, and excitement. And above all, we must remember one thing; we can not be, do or have anything if we do not exist. If we have ill health, mind, and soul, we can not live a life which we dream.

Moreover, it is important to look over that big goal or the picture time and time again which you have painted earlier in your life. You also need to assess yourselves that whether you are on track or not. You need to follow up frequently and question yourselves that is that the life which you dream about and want to live.

Paradigm Shifting: How Much Is It Difficult to Get out of a Wrong Paradigm?

After discovering that we are in the wrong paradigm, we have to move instantly in order to shift our paradigm. The quicker we can do that, the less the loss in our life in terms of anything. But certainly, it is very difficult as we never want to get out of our comfort zone in spite of failing multiple times. We become so habituated to those failure conversations, failure attitudes, habits, and behaviors that we do not want to change even after incurring a huge loss. Failure or being locked into a wrong paradigm or map becomes a new normal all the time.

Just think of the brick wall above. It is a strong structure. If you want to pull one bar of brick from here, how much force one needs to create? Similarly, if you want to change in life, you need to fight against the old paradigm and create a relentless force that will pull you out of the old paradigm. It may take weeks, months, or even years. Determination, Patience, and perseverance are a must to achieve that.

Discovering a New Paradigm: Thinking Out of the Box

The persons who think out of the box show path to humanity, inventing or discovering something new which nobody has thought of before. How is that possible? What are the factors which build the paradigm of such persons whose perceptions become the perception of the world or anyone can see through their glasses clearly? For example, think of a person who discovers a drug that saves millions of lives, a person who thinks of the internet, a person who thinks of building the space station, a person who initiates the concept of money, government and legal system. These persons are out-of-the-box thinkers. their paradigms are above all other paradigms. Their gut is so powerful that they can overcome all their adversaries. Human wellbeing is their passion. They work hard day and night to search for solutions for humankind. They are the torchbearers. They have to fight against the existing paradigms and defeat conventional thinking. They become almost tried to make people believe that what they are thinking is correct and it is a sustainable solution for the whole human race. They hardly get any support until their endeavor becomes a grand success.

Parents' Paradigm Become Children's Paradigm

It has already been mentioned that the parents' paradigm becomes the children's paradigm. Parents are the first influencers in a person's life. What if parents are of the wrong paradigm? A very complex question to answer. It is very common that children will learn everything from their parents from an early age whether it is bad or good, right or wrong, fair or foul. Until or unless any person becomes mature enough or develops enough gut to question what they have learned from their ancestors, s/he lives in the wrong paradigm for years, unfortunately. But if the parents have already chosen the right paradigm, their kids do not suffer and learn to utilize the correct one from the very beginning of their life.

The Paradigm of an Organization or a Community

Like an individual, a group of people may hold the same paradigm in order to achieve the same goals. Likewise, an organization or a community is no exception. Each organization has its own paradigm. Every single employee of a company lives up to the value or the principles of that paradigm. The long-serving people or leaders become the paradigm themselves who represent the whole institution. On the other hand, it is also true that an entity that fails to establish the correct paradigm not only gets confused in its way to achieve its goals but also keeps the whole workforce in an obscure zone regarding what targets to attain or which paths to follow. Great entities are based on a strong age-old paradigm that has been enriched by the contributions and knowledge of the thousands. Such types of companies are not built overnight.

The Power of a Destructive Paradigm

There are people who hold the wrong paradigm and the number is not small. These people also become successful by means of dishonesty, trickery or fraud. Thus they also become the destructive force that creates immense unhappiness, dissatisfaction and discomfort to the common people.

If we want to live our lives most effectively, we surely have to discover our own paradigm and always have to get it on track so that our short life does not get lost in the midst of uncertainties, unhappiness and sickness of any type.

The Above article is dedicated to Stephen R. Cover, Author of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. The idea and inspiration have generally come from this life-changing book.

Thanks a lot for reading the whole story. If you like it, please leave me a heart. Tip is certainly an encouragement for more creation.

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