KNOW YOUR PARADIGMS; CHANGE YOUR PARADIGMS
I attended Bob Proctor’s 5-Days to Profit and Purpose and on the second day, we learned about Paradigms. Bob Proctor was the first person to introduce paradigms to me in that name, and in the way I now understand it. Let me tell you about it in the way you may use it to change your lives, just as he has helped me with mine.
Can you identify the frustrating moments of thinking and wanting to do something but finding yourself doing something else, the complete opposite of what you intended to do? Have you noticed that plenty of times you don’t do what you intend to do, but you just do auto-matically what you have cancelled out doing in your conscious thought?
Yet, you know that there is nothing which you do that you have not imagined to do even if in the instantaneous moment of doing it. So, how can you think of doing something but you find yourself with a behaviour that is opposite, and that is also in your mind (or at least you know so well that ‘you’re going to do that opposite, undesirable behaviour)?
The answer is simply Paradigm.
What is a paradigm? A paradigm is a set of thought-feelings that are fixed in the most powerful, domineering part of your mind and that determine your automatic actions. It is the instructions which are contained in your subconscious mind and are ‘instructing’ your body to behave in a certain way almost all the time. More simply, it is certain feelings that condition your behaviour into specific habits in reaction to specific circumstances.
Paradigm is a new name for an old understanding. Two thousand years ago, Paul described just the conditions we have mentioned above. He wrote thus, ‘For I don’t know what I am doing. For I don’t practice what I desire to do; but what I hate, that I do. But if what I don’t desire, that I do, I consent to the law that it is good… For the good which I desire, I don’t do; but the evil which I don’t desire, that I practice… I find then the law, that, to me, while I desire to do good, evil is present… but I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members.’
Paradigm is ‘the law in my members’. Paul shared the sentiment that by long observation of ourselves, we can establish that there is a law, principle or instruction which our body obeys and which conflicts with the law of our conscious mind by making our body do the wrong things which we do not want but which are already conditioned into our body.
The important points from the above are that your paradigm dictate your habitual behaviour, and most of your behaviour is habitual. Most of your day is routine, and paradigm keep control of your routinely, reactionary actions. As with everything in nature, paradigm is meant to be a positive and rewarding when effectively used. However, the abuse of this emotional faculty is what has caused a lot of the problems which people face all their lives. Let’s understand this further.
Behaviour creates results. What you do determines what you get. Feelings determine behaviour. So, if there are fixed feelings that determine automatic behaviour, then they also determine results in an automatic manner. If the feelings are good, the behaviour is good and the results are good. If the feelings are not good, the behaviour is not good and the results are not desirable. Ultimately, the results you consistently have right now reflects the not so much what you truly are capable of as it does what kind of feelings are programmed into your paradigm subconsciously.
This means paradigm has nothing to do with your level of schooling, your intellectual prowess, your background, financial status, position/role, country, etc. It has to do with what is in your subconscious mind. Solomon meant this when he said, ‘The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill.’ You can have all the resources it takes to win in the world. If your paradigm is not winning, you won’t. Your paradigms must be favourable for you to win. Your behaviour happens being conditioned by what is in your paradigms. If your paradigm has a great, superb set of instructions, your behaviour are going to be great and superb. If not, you are conditioned to act in an average or a less than average way.
Even the greatest teacher of all did make the point of paradigms clear, ‘The tree is known by its fruit… For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. The good man out of his good treasure brings out good things, and the evil man out of his evil treasure brings out evil things… For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.’
Let’s take a quick exercise together to show you a paradigm.
‘How are you?’
A question as simple as this can be revealing of what paradigm is in us. If you answer, ‘I am fine,’ you are reacting to the question. It is an automatic answer. If I asked you, ‘How are you?’ a thousand times, the answer is going to be ‘I am fine’ at least 998 times. That is how strong the grip of paradigm could be. Now, let us see that it is not reflective of your conscious thought at any point in time.
When you say, ‘I am fine,’ do you mean it? You probably mean, ‘Okay, comfortable.’ You believe the inquirer will not ask further because their paradigm says ‘when you hear, ‘I am fine,’ you can move on.’ As for you, you really want to tell someone how it is all going for you, but won’t because of the i-am-fine- code in your subconscious programming. For the next person, they consciously want to care and feel useful to you. But they won’t ask further because they are conditioned not to. You are not happy, which is what they want to know. But you both take fine to mean, ‘It’s okay anyway,’ and you both carry on. The funny case is you have been told to say, ‘I am fine,’ from infancy, even when you were crying for breast milk, or when you were cheerful for some toy. As you were repetitively told to and you continued to say, ‘I’m fine,’ regardless of the situation, you grew into the habit of saying it anyway no matter what the situation was.
So, paradigms form in the subconscious mind by repetitive behaviour over a period of time. Paradigms help you get dressed easily, drive a car safely and without being conscious of 98% of the driving activity, etc. But it also gets you to say ‘I’m fine,’ when you most need help, or make decisions so slowly that you have afforded yourself time to see all possible excuses why you cannot take an opportunity. Your paradigm can be helpful and destructive. Since most of the paradigms you have now are not yours, you cannot blame yourself for their formation.
Paradigms are formed by two conditions: the genetic code which are right in your biological DNA that make you look like your parents and further ancestors, and the environmental code that you have learned since when you were growing up until now in the environment you are exposed to. The latter has the greater impact on your behaviour, and is learned by imitating. I can give you this suggestion to ponder on then.
‘When I look at a habitual behaviour that I am displeased with, I forgive myself and know that I learned to behave that way through others because that was all I was exposed to from childhood. Since the conditioning and exposure were not my choice, I do not have to defend them. There is nothing personal or hurting when a friend points out a behaviour I should change, or when I figure out such a behaviour by self-analysis. The object of my old paradigm is not mine, I do not have any obligation to keep it when it is not serving me. I can, should and must change it if I want great results in my life. Therefore, I overwrite the existing paradigm of indecision (put any paradigm you are unsatisfied with) in my subconscious mind by accepting and loving that I make decisions promptly, definitely and remain committed to the decision persistently (substitute with the type of behaviour you want).’
Consider that the line of argument above suggests to your subconscious mind that you do not own any previous paradigm, have no obligation to keep it and now begin to hone the new, pleasant and happy paradigm that you want. Keep to reading the suggestion morning and night for thirty days, and in the afternoon just after lunch, take a pen and a notebook and handwrite the same suggestion in it. Get emotionally involved in the suggestion as you read or write it because your subconscious is your emotional centre and the only language it communicates in is feelings. If you think it is not the best practice to say this aloud for your hearing and repeatedly speak it all day long (but never the opposite, nor what you do not want in any respect), consider the words which Jesus said again about Paradigms, ‘For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.’
Note carefully that paradigms are not in themselves bad; but the type of paradigms which the average person has is bad. That is where the matter is. Change your paradigms for good, and success becomes automatic for you.
As you learn this, let the person next to you know that there is such thing as a paradigm, and they probably have such paradigms which are not good. They can change their lives for great by changing their paradigms; but they must start with a decision to change their lives. Share the idea with them and get those you care about to work on their paradigms just as you do. Let us help you at ENGRAFT SOCIETY to change your paradigms for great! You are going to be surprised what greatness you have always been capable of!
