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What exactly is a paradigm shift? In
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Stephen R. Covey
defines it as one of life’s “aha” moments. That’s the
moment when a sudden realization changes a lifetime of
faulty assumptions. Man’s earliest attempts at flight
were based on a faulty paradigm. Birds flap their wings,
therefore if we want to fly, we’ll have to make wings
and flap them. This, they assumed, was the only way to
reach the stars.
Then one day someone, who was probably watching a hawk
soaring effortlessly above, had an “aha” moment. “Why
don’t we forget about all this flapping? We’ll fix the
wing and just soar on the wind currents.” That, my
friends, was a major paradigm shift. From that single
breakthrough came gliders, airplanes, jets and space
shuttles. A simple shift in paradigm can lead to
fantastic developments. They can lead to fantastic
wealth, too.
As Covey points out, the United States is the product of
a paradigm shift. Can there be a greater success story
in history! For thousands of years people had lived
under the rule of kings and emperors. Some were good,
some bad, and some only so-so. But except for the
occasional bloody revolution the people were pretty much
stuck with the leadership handed them. Then those
creative and adventurous colonist in the New World had a
paradigm shift. What if the people chose their leaders,
they thought. Let the people actually rule…the people.
The rest is history, a great history.
We are our paradigms. You cannot separate yourself from
your paradigms. They are the basic assumptions that make
you – you. That’s great when your paradigms are
positive. But negative paradigms tend to brew real
trouble. That’s why fundamental change is so fundamental
to achieving great wealth. Whether the change from
negative to positive comes instantaneously or whether it
evolves over time isn’t really important. What matters
is that you make the necessary changes. What follows, in
all aspects of your life, is pure gold. |