Why Your Paradigms Determine Your Success or Failure! – Legends Report

Image by perceptions (off) @ Flickr

By Jatinder Singh, Associate Partner & Mentorship Coach, Lighthouse International

“It becomes obvious that 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, quantum change, we need to work on our basic paradigms – Stephen R Covey.”

Stephen Covey in his book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People wrote one of the most important works in personal development which has been acclaimed the world over. In it, he outlined the principles and habits of building an extraordinary life and recently, I went back over certain parts that I have read many times but they hit me in ways that I had not seen before. Dr Covey talks about the fundamental roots of human behaviour and human change, the starting point for this being how we “see” ourselves and world or in other words our paradigms.

I wanted to share some really powerful parts of Dr Covey’s book, in order to explain why this is so critical.

What Is a Paradigm?

A paradigm is the way we see the world as Dr Covey explains:

‘The way we “see” the world – not in terms of our visual sense of sight, but in terms of perceiving, understanding, interpreting…A simple way to understand them is to see them as map. We all know that the “map is not the territory,” A map is simply an explanation of certain aspects of the territory. That’s exactly what a paradigm is. It’s a theory, an explanation or model of something else”

Why Is This Important 

Frankly, it is important because your perception of a situation will determine how you feel, think and act, and this ultimately will determine the result. Most people want to feel happy, yet many people don’t, as their perceptions of themselves and the situation are geared to only see problems of negative things. Stephen Covey gives a brilliant example of how powerful a paradigm can be:

“Suppose you wanted to arrive at a specific location in central Chicago. A street map of the city would be a great help to you in reaching your destination. But suppose you were given the wrong map. Through a printing error, the map labeled “Chicago” was actually a map of Detroit. Can you imagine the frustration, the ineffectiveness of trying to reach your destination?

“You might work on your behaviour..by doubling your speed. But your efforts would only succeed in getting you to the wrong place faster.”

“You might work on your attitude – you could think more positively. You still wouldn’t get to the right place.”

‘The point is you would still be lost. The fundamental problem has nothing to do with your behaviour or your attitude. It has everything to do with having a wrong map.”

We Can Change Our Paradigms

When we have the right paradigm i.e. the right map, then our behaviour and attitude are crucial, if we wish to achieve our goals. Our thoughts consist of many maps. Most of us have maps which are more accurate than others, and indeed a few maps that are completely off-course! How much damage to our life goals and achievements, come as a result of our incorrect maps?

The great news is, we can change the maps that hold us back. Sometimes it only takes a split second to do this. The key is, we need to question the accuracy of our perceptions and paradigms. Dr Covey explains more:

“Each of us has many, many maps in our head, which can be divided into two main categories: maps of the way things are, or realities, and maps of the way things should be, or values. We interpret everything we experience through these mental maps. We seldom question their accuracy; we’re usually even 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. And our attitudes and behaviors grow out of those assumptions. The way we see things is the source of the way we think and the way we act.”

Here’s a powerful example of how the world can look very very different when seen through a new paradigm…

Legends Examine Their Paradigms

Most legends become highly effective because their maps are more aligned to reality. This is because they are willing to question their own perceptions and ‘maps’ more frequently. Questioning our maps can be emotionally painful at times but to succeed in life we must be willing to undertake this process despite the discomfort and pain.

When we have better quality maps we see people and situations more clearly, we are not influenced by our own predjudices and the opinions of others. Legends often have created good mental maps because of their past mistakes and difficult circumstances.  In part 2 of this article, we’ll look at practical examples of changing our paradigms, and the impact they can make in our lives.