{"id":37278,"date":"2026-10-23T15:04:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-23T15:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.franklincovey.de\/?p=37278"},"modified":"2026-10-23T15:06:05","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T15:06:05","slug":"paradigms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.franklincovey.de\/en\/2026\/10\/23\/paradigms\/","title":{"rendered":"Paradigms"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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Paradigm comes from the Greek root,\u00a0paradigma<\/em>. It basically means a pattern, a model, a representation, something that stands for something else. It comes from the mental image you have in your mind of the way things are \u2018out there\u2019. The images we carry in our heads of the way things are, of reality, come from our own backgrounds, our own experiences.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n\n

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All of us think that we see the world as it is. In fact, we see the world as we are. We project onto the outside world, our environment, the people we associate with, including how we see ourselves. We project out of our own conditioning experiences, our own background, a certain representation, a certain model, a certain set of expectations, a certain assumption on that reality out there. We think that\u2019s the way it is.<\/p>\n

I might describe myself, or you, or a situation as if I am describing it as it is. In fact, I am describing myself, that is my perceptions, my frame of reference, my worldview, my value-system, my autobiography, and I\u2019m projecting it upon the outside. Now let me get a very simply layman\u2019s way of looking at a paradigm: it is a map, like a map of Portland.<\/p>\n

What would you do if you went to Portland and you had no information at all about the city and you were given a map of Seattle, but on the top it said \u2018Portland\u2019? What would you do? You\u2019ve never been to Portland, you have no other source of information. You would get lost. Let\u2019s assume you call your buddy up on the phone and he knows that you\u2019ve got that map and he says to you, \u2018try harder, you\u2019re tired.\u2019<\/p>\n

So now you double your speed. What\u2019s going to happen? You call your friend back in a state of total despair and discouragement and say to him, \u2018I have never been so confused and so lost in my life and I am following this map to the hilt. I have doubled my speed and I\u2019m lost twice as fast.\u2019 Your friend senses you\u2019re discouraged, you\u2019re really down, you\u2019re almost ready to give up, it\u2019s despairing. He says to you, \u2018Think positively!\u2019<\/p>\n

He gets you just jazzed right out of your gourd. I mean he says, \u2018You can do this thing! Rise to the occasion! Do it!\u2019 Do you do it? Now you don\u2019t even care that you\u2019re lost right? That\u2019s what a paradigm is. You see, a paradigm is the map that you have in your mind. Once you have an accurate map, then your behaviour and your attitude matter.<\/p>\n

What we call maps are usually assumptions, assumptions of the way things are. Assumptions of the way things are represent just that\u2019s what reality is, you don\u2019t question that. I remember I was giving a speech a little while back and there was someone on the front row just constantly talking to another person. My mother was two rows behind and she was so upset that here her precious son was being so ignored, so blatantly, so openly, constantly, and with no end. From the very moment I began, to the end of my speech, just constant talking. It totally discombobulated her own listening and she felt like taking her purse and reaching two rows ahead\u2026<\/p>\n

Anyway, she went up afterwards to the person who was running the conference and asked them, \u2018Did you see that? Did you see what was happening? Can you believe that right there on the front row\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2018Yeah I know,\u2019 the event organiser responded, \u2018she\u2019s Korean and that\u2019s her translator.\u2019<\/p>\n

I was on a subway in a very large metropolitan city. It was Sunday morning, quiet, sedate. When a bunch of young kids came running into the subway car and their father followed. He sat near me and the kids went crazy on that subway, running up and down, turning people\u2019s papers aside, just raucous and rude. I\u2019m sitting there thinking, \u2018I can\u2019t believe this, their father does nothing!\u2019 I look at my attitude, attitude to try to control, but look what I could see.<\/p>\n

After a few minutes, attitude went into behaviour, \u2018Sir, do you think you could control your children a little? They are very upsetting to people.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Oh yeah.\u2019 He lifted his head as if to come to an awareness of what was happening. \u2018Yeah, I don\u2019t know. I just guess I should. We just left the hospital. Their mother died just about an hour ago and I guess they don\u2019t know how to take it and frankly I don\u2019t either.\u2019<\/p>\n

Imagine the paradigm shift that took place there. Imagine now what the attitude and the behaviour would be based upon that paradigm. Can you see why paradigms are deeper than attitude or behaviour? Even though we\u2019re talking here in personal and interpersonal ways, the same thing takes place throughout our whole society.<\/p>\n

Thomas Kuhn, in his brilliant book,\u00a0The Structure of Scientific Revolutions,<\/em>\u00a0points out so powerfully and consistently: \u201cAll the significant breakthroughs were break-withs old ways on thinking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Einstein, who rewrote physics, he made this brilliant statement: \u201cThe significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.\u201d<\/p>\n

It causes us to be reflective and introspective, to explore our own paradigms. Most people focus upon behaviour and upon attitude and both of those are of course very important, but far more fundamental than either behaviour or attitude, is a paradigm.<\/p>\n

Discover the power of transforming paradigms in practice<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n\n\n

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Change Your Paradigms<\/h2>
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Free Guide<\/p>\n

Private Victories
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Free Guide<\/p>\n

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Free Guide<\/p>\n

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