The Power of a Paradigm Shift
Covey has the best example of a paradigm shift: he was traveling in a subway, a man gets in with his two sons, the sons are running all over the place bothering the people, this continues, so he finally gets irritated enough to ask the father why he doesn't do something to control his kids. The father replies, "We just got back from the hospital where their mother died. I don't know how to handle it and I guess they don't either."
Suddenly you see the everything differently. That is the power of a paradigm shift. They are the same kids yelling and screaming in the subway, but you look at them and understand them in a different way.
I was at the swimming pool the other day and saw a family of three leaving out the door. The little boy suddenly stopped and stood looking through the glass at the swimmers in the pool who were still swimming. The father yelled back to him, "Come on, what are you doing, just staring at things again? Let's go!" I thought about the paradigm that the father had of his son: "stupid, slow kid who's always doing something he isn't supposed to." Now what if the school conselor were to call the father up the next day and tell him, "We have just received the test results back from your son and have discovered that he has impressively high IQ. He is a genius." The next time his kid stood staring at something, I wonder if the father wouldn't go back to him inquisitively and say, "Tell me what you are thinking about son. What do you see?"
Our behavior results from our paradigms of the world. The classic example of the old woman/young woman picture which Covey includes in the book is a good example. You can look at the picture and see an old woman or you can look at the picture and see a young woman. Depending on what you see is what you are going to say about "that picture."The Principle-Centered Paradigm
In this book, Covey wants to express to us how we can base our behavior on a paradigm of the world which is centered on our unchanging principles instead of being centered on what happens in the world, what others do, what we do, how we feel, how others feel, the stock market, and the vicissitudes of life.
The Way We See the Problem Is the Problem
If you have a problem, the actual problem is that you are looking at it as a problem. It could be something else, such as an opportunity. When it rains lemons, make lemonade. You just need a paradigm shift.
