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The Parable of the Paradigm
By karen | March 12, 2008Many years ago, a very successful woman gave me a small gift of a booklet, You2: A High-Velocity Formula for Multiplying Your Personal Effectiveness
The booklet starts out with a story that I will somewhat relate here. The analogy is so perfect and it illustrates my point so well.
It starts out telling the story of a fly, a common housefly. The fly is banging against a plate glass window in a futile attempt to escape. The fly can see what is on the other side of the window but try as he might he will never succeed in breaking through the glass and getting to the other side. Never. The fly will fight to his death at a losing proposition, a game that can never be won. Because the glass is impenetrable, no matter what he does, no matter how many times he tries, no matter how many times he bangs his head, and even though he can see where he wants to go, the glass will keep him right where he is.
But….if the fly would just turn around and go the other way the fly would be able to escape and save his own life. The fly would be able to achieve the goal of freedom that he seeks if he would just turn around and look at the situation from a different perspective. But of course, a fly never does that. A fly will bang against the window for hours on end and even till its death because it cannot see any other way.
And so often we do almost the same thing.
We think we know how the world works and how things are. It is a function of our Ego but we all get caught in paradigms of how we believe things work and how things are. And when we are stuck in that paradigm we will doggedly pursue our goals with unfailing determination. We are resolute. We are tenacious. We pursue our goals with a single-minded focus. We will triumph come hell or high water. But do we?
How often are we just like that fly? How often do we continue on a path that is not going to take us where we want to go just because we are determined that that is how we are going to do it? Or how often are we convinced that the way we are going must be the right way because after all, other people did it that way, so it must be the only way.
How often do we stay in the struggle of life, when if we were to open our minds and look around we would be able to see a better way?
When I was in high school, there was a teacher who believed that every girl should take “shorthand” so as to be able to secure a job in the future (shorthand was a way of writing quickly to take dictation). Her theory was that there would always be a need for secretaries and shorthand was a valuable skill to have. Well, not long after high school the technology came about that rendered shorthand obsolete. No matter how good someone was at taking dictation by shorthand there was no longer any demand. There are no jobs that require the skill of shorthand. It is no longer necessary. The teachers paradigm that shorthand was such a valuable skill was busted. (I never did learn shorthand. My theory was that I didn‘t want to “be” a secretary but rather I wanted to “have” a secretary, yes, another function of the ego.)
If you look back on history, some of the greatest discoveries have come from people who were not the “experts” or the “best” in the field. Sometimes they didn’t even work in the field. Someone from “outside” was able to come up with a different and a better idea, just because they were not caught up in the paradigms.
They didn’t “know” all the ways it could be done…and all the ways it couldn’t be done…so therefore they just did it.
Unlike the fly they were able to see another way.
We live in an ever-changing world. There are new possibilities every day.
Are you seeing them? Or are you stuck in your own paradigms?
March 15th, 2008 at 9:31 am
Hi Karen,
Glad to read you!
I’m looking for them. Sometimes I see them and sometimes I don’t, but I always know they are out there.
Much love,
Patricia
March 15th, 2008 at 10:43 am
Thanks Patricia
I appreciate that…..
As for “always knowing it’s out there” I used to think that about 2 of my favorite blogs,
beConsciousnow.com by KL Masina and Optimist Lab by Cardin Lily Routh….then I woke up one day and they were gone…poof…gone….
As the words go to a song that has been playing in my head lately….”Don’t it always seem to be that you don’t know what you got till it’s gone…they paved paradise and put up a parking lot”
(btw…I don’t think I am leaving but I am feeling a shift in the energies….)
March 16th, 2008 at 11:10 am
[...] In The Parable of the Paradigm Karen Lynch talks about paradigms, the set of beliefs that lock us into one approach to living, and how they can be changed. [...]
March 17th, 2008 at 10:55 am
Thanks Karen for the wonderful analogy of the fly.
“I Know That” are some of the most dangerous words that we ever say to ourselves.
They get us stuck behind that glass, unable to change our point of view.
And even worse, the more we hide from truth, and stand behind what we already know, the more rigid and blind we seem to become.
Joel
March 19th, 2008 at 8:18 pm
Thank you Joel.
That story always hit me as so profound and yes, so true….
April 27th, 2008 at 10:32 am
What you say can be most literally true. My father died at 45 looking like he was 65, doing exactly as that fly did.
Seems like a better idea to try something else…
Lexi
April 27th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
[...] Karen Lynch presents The Parable of the Paradigm (Live The Power). A beautifully clear description of how we can trap ourselves, and how to choose something else instead. [...]
August 21st, 2008 at 10:17 am
In many ways, I feel like my paradigms are often shifting even before I realize I’m ready!
If even just 2 years ago somebody had said to me I’d be where I am mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually…
I’d have sent them to the loony bin for saying such crazy thoughts!
(Now some of those people would probably want to put ME in the loony bin because of how much my paradigms have shifted)
August 21st, 2008 at 11:39 am
It’s okay Chris,
)
I think there are many people that I know that would put me into the looney bin…(occasionally, I even think myself that perhaps that is where I belong
But think about this…you are in a very strong position if you can see the paradigms shifting as they go!
Thanks, Chris!
August 21st, 2008 at 11:42 am
Thanks for the reminder! I too have been like the fly. It’s taken me 11 months to realize this or I could say to “see” this. I am learning not to be too rigid in my daily life. It’s a process.
August 21st, 2008 at 11:59 am
Hi Karen,
That’s a great lesson for all of us. My only unxolicited addition to that story is that we were all born with two ears and one mouth…and we should use them accordinly!
August 21st, 2008 at 3:05 pm
Excellent advice Karen.
We all have that tendency to ‘get stuck in a rut’ and do things the way we think they should be done. We do things the way everyone else does them because that’s how it’s always been done.
But I promise you there are ALWAYS different angles and views related to every situation that comes into our lives. And there are ALWAYS answers, solutions, opportunities, and reasons that are present IF we CHOOSE to look for them.
August 21st, 2008 at 4:05 pm
If the fly would have remembered these three things he would have succeeded.
1.) Knowledge of your power.
2.) The Courage to dare.
3.) The Faith to do.
I have started living my life on these things and I must say that it has greatlty improved, Plus I read all your e-mails.
Thanks Karen
August 21st, 2008 at 4:24 pm
Rebecca,
yes, but remember you can’t get it wrong because you never get it done!
Douglas,
yes, 2 ears got that! (I do think we all do better when we listen to life more than we talk)
Doug Allan,
The answers are there but if we are stuck in our paradigms we don’t always see them….You’re right…we need to Choose to see the possibilities!
William,
I love that! Knowledge, Courage and Faith!
(and your last sentence brought tears to my eyes…Thank you!)
August 24th, 2008 at 11:44 am
karen! wyh u love me?
August 24th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
At last!
I was tired of breaking windows, until I noticed I was not a fly… hahahaha
Great one Karen. Thanks a lot!