I recently discovered this on Raymond Chow’s blog, “Law of Attraction“. This is a great video by Jerry and Esther Hicks on the analogy between the flow of a stream and the flow of life. Are we constantly paddling our canoes upstream? Or are we allowing our canoes to follow the natural course of the stream?
Whether you agree with the law of attraction or not, and I’m not sure I do, there is wisdom in this analogy. I believe it’s a call to examine your life and decide if you could make different choices that would cause you to stop paddling upstream so much. In other words, can you make different choices about your life and work that won’t be such a struggle?
I hope you enjoy this video.
Please leave your thoughts in the comments. Thanks,
Sherri
Here are some definitions from a couple of different dictionaries:
A set of assumptions, concepts, values, and practices constituting a view of reality (Google define:paradigm)
A philosophical or theoretical framework of any kind (Merriam-Webster Online)
I think the first definition hits the nail squarely on the head. Here is a list of some paradigms from the past and present so we can wrap our heads around the concept better.
List of Paradigms:
the world is flat
the world is round
there are only 4 elements: earth, fire, wind, and water
there are 118 elements as listed in the periodic table of the elements
the sun revolves around the Earth
the Earth revolves around the sun and is a very small part of the universe
disease is a punishment rained down upon mankind by the gods for bad deeds
disease is caused by any of the following: bacteria, viruses, parasites, other microscopic organisms, mistakes in transcription or translation of DNA when cells replicate, and poor health habits
a good credit score is essential for survival in the modern world
you can’t live without debt
all things exist without our actual experience of them
reality is all the stuff out in the world
thoughts are not reality
we can’t create our own reality
we can and do create our own reality consciously, and if we don’t do it consciously it happens subconsciously anyway
education itself is the key to success
there are Ph.D.s who are unemployed bums
learning is best measured by standardized tests
learning is best measured by the ability to assess real-life situations and successfully solve them
teaching children to think and solve problems should be done only when the material for the standardized tests has been learned adequately
science and religion are always at opposite ends of the spectrum
faith and religion are the same thing
bicycle seats can be redesigned using other concepts than the saddle of a horse.
The list could go on for quite some time until we cover every area of life as we understand it. The point is, we have a set of beliefs built around our experiences and teachings of our world and we take many things for granted. Those things are our paradigms.
If history is any teacher (and it’s generally the best one), our offspring will later find that many of our paradigms are not true, just as we have found many of the paradigms our ancestors believed were not true.
Why should we examine and discuss our paradigms?
The best reason is if we never question why we do what we do or why we believe what we believe, we will never change the world for the better.
Change doesn’t happen unless we do something differently or think differently or come up with different ideas.
Our modern world is testament to the importance of changing our paradigms.
Please leave comments and let’s discuss our paradigms. I’d love to hear what you think.
Seth Godin posted a great article on his blog about attending top colleges vs. regular colleges and their outcomes. I gotta say kudos, Seth! You got it right.
I don’t mean to disrespect those who attend Ivy League and upscale private colleges and universities. But, let’s face it, most people won’t ever set foot on one of those campuses, let alone become a student on one. They’re prohibitively expensive except to the rich or the select few who can go on full scholarships. The education you receive is not proportionately better for the price. The career you enter into is probably not going to pay enough to cover your student loan payments if you aren’t rich enough to pay cash for such an education.
A $40,000 education at a public, in-state college or university is just as good as a $200,000 education at an out-of-state private or Ivy League school. I’d pit my public primary and secondary school education and my state public college education and degree against anyone’s. And I didn’t go into a ton of debt to get it either. I was able to work my way through college. My very small student loans were paid off within 7 years of graduation on a modest salary. My loan payments were less than most people’s minimum credit card payments.
After you have a degree, there are very few places where anyone cares where you got it or even what your GPA is for long. What people care about is if you have the knowledge you need and if you can apply it, know how to get more and think to accomplish your work for your employer or in your own business. Your performance is what matters.
I’m a small business owner and given the choice, I’d hire a B-C average student from a local college because they probably had to work hard on studying to get those grades, or they had to work a job part-time or full-time to get a degree at all. They already know how to work.
I wouldn’t even consider a student from an Ivy League school. They wouldn’t stay long enough for me to waste my time, energy and money training them. I’m a small business with no clout. Why would they even look at me as a potential employer? I believe they’d leave as soon as a more prestigious opportunity came along.
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