Paradigm Shift

Cover of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

I've talked about paradigm shift before. This is about WHY you need a paradigm shift.

So what is paradigm shift? Paradigm shift is best described as when you suddenly get a whole new perspective on the entire situation, that completely shifts your world view.

Steven Covey, in his book "7 Habits of Highly Effective People", gave the following example:

In a New York subway car, one man is sitting, his elbows on his knees, his head held up by his hands. His eyes are blank, as if starring a thousand yards away, in his own world. Around him, several children are running around, wild, screaming, pushing each other, generally behaving badly. The other passengers gave them a wide berth, many with disapproving glares. Finally, one of them approached the man and spoke up.

'Sir, are these your kids? They are absolutely out of control! Don't you think you should do something?'

The man blinked, and took him several seconds to refocus his eyes on the disapproving passenger... Then he replied slowly...

'Oh, yeah... right. Sorry. I guess I should. We just came from the hospital... Their mother just died...'

By this time the disapproving passenger is hoping for a hole to crawl into.

That is a paradigm shift: one piece of information was gained, and sudden the perspective on the entire situation changed.

Here's a slightly funnier example:

One woman was in an elevator with several other people. It's a big elevator, and a tall building. This woman can't stay still. She's twirling her keys, whistling, the keys clinking... generally annoying the rest of the people in the elevator car. Everybody else is glaring at the back of her head, and she's simply unaware.

The elevator stopped and door opened. She started to walk out, then the keys slipped from her finger, and slipped through the seam between the elevator and the door, down into the elevator shaft.

Everybody in the elevator grimaced. Nobody wants to be in her shoes. They were about to offer condolences and sympathy until the klutzy woman uttered two words that created a paradigm shift. Any one care to guess what those two words are?

She exclaimed (a bit of hurt, a bit of surprise), "Not again!" (My apologies to any one who actually DID lose keys down elevator shaft. )

I think I got this from Reader's Digest. With those two words, you suddenly got a new piece of information that shifted your entire perspective.

The point is you NEED to react to new information, which will give you the paradigm shift. However, you need to be receptive to paradigm shifts. If you aren't, you'll say something like "that's stupid" or "I don't get it". If you still don't get it...

[If you have to explain a joke, it's not funny. But here goes... The woman exclaimed, "Not again!" which implies that she had done this before. And if you didn't learn your lesson from last time, why should we have any sympathy for you this time?]

Mr. Kiyosaki have stated that there are three steps to getting rich: think, learn, and do.

You need to learn to think like the rich. Part of it, is simply know WHAT you want, and why you want it, but a bigger part of it is be receptive to new way of thinking, and that's why we were talking about paradigm shifts.

When most people talk "investing", it's probably "hot stock tips" or "mutual funds". However, investing is NOT just about money, but also time, and effort. It is about BUSINESS, since you actually invest in a BUSINESS, and what better way to learn about a business than running one?  After all, how would you know what's a good investment if you don't even know what "good" is? That is a paradigm shift. It's a new perspective.

How about the old adage "Money cannot buy you happiness"? While money cannot buy you happiness, it can buy conveniences that let you have more time to do things that you enjoy, which leads to happiness. It is NOT about the accumulation of wealth, but rather, the financial freedom that it entails. How much happier would you be if you don't have to worry about the paycheck coming in?  That is a paradigm shift as well. It's a new perspective on the power of money.

You need to examine your core beliefs, and SHIFT them if it is in your interest to do so.

Once you have shifted your reality, THEN you will be receptive of the new information about HOW to achieve your goal. That is the LEARN part of the three steps.

Then finally, you go off and actually do it.