Paradigms are systems of thinking that we engage in over a period of time that defines how we see the world, sets our definitions and also set our limitations.
For example, many people for a long time think that the earth was flat and for as long as they thought the earth was flat, it meant that there was a place you can walk up to, that you will actually fall over a cliff, just because the earth was perceived to be flat. As long as this paradigm existed, the limitations it created were the limitations of travel, people were not allowed to sojourn beyond particular points because they were afraid that they would fall off the cliff. Villages did not multiply, people did not venture far, and people did not stretch far into unknown territories for fear of falling over the cliff.
The year that Ferdinand Magellan decided to sojourn the world and took the risk of knowing whether the world was flat or not, with an “if I die, I die; if I perish, I perish” mandate was the day the paradigm was shifted. He traveled round the earth and discovered that the earth was round, as soon as the paradigm changed from a flat world to a round world, the assumptions changed and people’s limitations were removed. People who would not journey more than 10 kilometers from their villages before could now sojourn and expand and fill the earth because the paradigm had shifted.
One other paradigm that has been very strong, in holding peoples mentality is the paradigm we currently even still find within our vocabulary. We say things like sunrise and we say the sunset. This language was developed from the time when people believed that the sun was revolving around the earth rather than the earth revolving round the sun. We existed in the paradigm that believed; the sun would rise in the morning and would set in the evening. Reality is that because of that assumption, there were limitations to how well we could predict our weather, there were limitations to how well we could predict time, there were limitations to how well we could predict so many things that had to do with time, with seasons, with light and those kind of things. Now reality is, once again the paradigm shifted and we realized that everything moving was within the orbit of planetary movement at the central core around which the earth itself moved. That what rises and set is not the sun but the earth.
More often than not, all we need to change is the way we think and suddenly, limitations get shifted and removed and we enjoy a free flow of thoughts that enable us to be richer wealthier and capable of venturing into new territories. We become capable of doing new things and seeing from different perspectives. What we need to change is not the world around us but how we see the world around us. Our paradigm shape us, defines us, defines our limitations and our world view. Once we get the paradigm right, its easy to walk in the new things that we want to walk in. In your journey to financial freedom there are key paradigms that need to shift.
