4 Easy Ways to Change Your Paradigm

Dear friend, being aware of the ongoing changes in every aspect of our lives has become an important task for our survival and our continued well being. 

We see companies and organizations collapse because they have not been able to change their ways of thinking and behaving. Individuals experience frustration when time is not spent anticipating changes and responding to the need for change.

We have seen more changes in the last decade than in the previous one hundred years. It is this rapid change that heightens our anxieties.

Change is infinite and we must always expect fluctuations when dealing with what we own. We must also expect changes in our loved ones, jobs and positions in life.

We evolve from child to parent, dependent to independent and sometimes back to dependent. It therefore would be in our best interest to flow with these moves and re-arrangements in life. This will require a paradigm shift.

The Paradigm Shift

A paradigm, in a general sense is the way we see the world – not in terms of our visual sight, but in terms of perceiving, understanding and interpreting.

If we want to make relatively minor changes in our lives, we can, perhaps, appropriately focus on our attitudes and behaviors. But, if we want to make significant change, we need to work on our basic paradigms.

There is always another way of looking at any situation or challenge that is presented to us. What you see is what you get.

Paradigms
A simple way to look at paradigms is to see them as maps. Each of us has many, many maps in our head which can be divided into two main categories. Maps of the way things are, and maps of the way things should be. We interpret everything we experience through these mental maps.

We seldom question their accuracy; we’re usually unaware that we have them. We simply assume that the way we see things is the way they really are or the way they should be. Our attitudes and behaviors grow out of these assumptions. 

People all over the world seem to believe that other people see life the same way they do, or at least, they should. To try to change our attitudes and behaviors does very little good in the long run, if we fail to examine the basic paradigms from which those attitudes and behaviors flow.

Here are four ways which will help you through the change process:

1.Clearing clutter and chaos from around (recycling, donating, selling)

2.Getting in touch with who you are in a safe environment (sharing & expressing who you are right now)

3.Choose to do things that are outside your normal routine (be spontaneous, flexible, outrageous)

4.Reading outside your current frame of reference (educational programs, movies, seeing, thinking) 

The more aware we are of our basic paradigms, maps or assumptions, and the extent to which we have been influenced by our experiences, the more we can take responsibility for those paradigms, examine them, listen to others and be open to their perceptions, thereby getting a larger picture and a far more objective view.

Until next time, make this a week one in which you are living your life to the fullest.

Article source - Nigel  St.Hill http://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/4-easy-ways-to-change-your-paradigm