Improve Your Life - Change Your Paradigm
Rick Osborn | May 20, 2008
In the midst of my dealings with people, I find that those who commonly have major problems are often trying to follow two or more different philosophies at once. Let me explain. As we mature, we all struggle (consciously or not) to find the right paradigm by which to live our lives. In case you don’t know, a paradigm is a set of assumptions, concepts, values, and practices that constitutes a way of viewing reality or life.
To be a well-balanced, healthy, moral individual, we must set our life foundation upon proper principles (the right paradigm). This follows what I wrote about in my recent blog about what I call “foundational suicide”. Without a solid true foundation we remain uncertain, confused and drifting through life without a proper sense of direction - which often leads to problems. Let me give you a simple example.
Mary is overweight. She eats a certain way and cooks the same way her mother used to cook when she was growing up. She tries to limit her portions so as not to take in too many calories and gain more weight. Regardless to all of her striving, she becomes more obese, getting fatter and more frustrated.
Mary’s concept of eating - the way she cooks, the foods she chooses, the timing of her meals, etc. - are all part of her nutritional paradigm, which is faulty. No matter how hard she tries, she continues to gain weight, making her more and more frustrated. She continues to build her nutritional house on quicksand, an incorrect paradigm, if you will. In order for Mary to achieve success, lose weight and become healthier and happier, she needs a nutritional paradigm shift or change.
You can apply this paradigm principle to any aspect of your life. If the rules by which you govern your life are wrong, the end result will also be wrong or less than desirable. If you take a cake recipe that’s missing an essential ingredient (such as eggs), no matter how closely you follow that recipe, you’re still going to end up with something other than cake. You need to change your paradigm/recipe. You can be sincere in your striving, but if your map is wrong, you won’t end up where you need or want to be.
Let me try to make it even more practical. I believe that everyone needs to have good, solid foundational paradigms, at a minimum, in the following areas to support a healthy, balanced life:
- Nutrition
- Exercise
- Morality/Ethics
- Religion
I’m not saying that the above list is all inclusive, and I realize that they do overlap a bit, but I believe that if you do not have correctly set values, beliefs, practices in the above areas, you will most likely have serious problems in your work, physical health and relationships with others. Many people seem to run into trouble when they have no core system of values, but instead follow their feeling of the moment. This obviously leads to trouble - something I call “goose in a windstorm” syndrome - someone who is aimless, wandering, unsure, frustrated . . . Need I go on? The list is endless.
The Apostle Paul put it very wisely in James 1:8 - “A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.”
Are you double-minded?
If you have two (or more) belief systems about any certain issue, whether it be nutrition, fitness, morality, work, relationships, etc., you’re going to be unstable. You’ll be blown all over the place and be constantly frustrated. It’s like the married man who has an affair (he believes it’s okay, which is his paradigm) and tries to maintain two different relationships. Full of deceit and dishonesty, it is based upon a faulty paradigm that eventually leads to disaster one way or another. Sure, he may get away with it, but at what cost?
One very important concept to remember about the paradigms that you choose for your life - our attitudes and behavior flow from our paradigms. Did you catch that?
If your behavior and your attitude about ANYTHING is taking you down the wrong path, it’s time for a paradigm change. Shifting your paradigm (your beliefs about reality, etc.) to a correct one is the quickest way to change bad behavior.
Being “double minded and unstable” is for miserable, lonely losers. If you want to change for the better and stop your bad behavior and unfortunate situation, adopt the right paradigms for your life. Stop being a “goose in a windstorm”. Be grounded and founded!
