Shattering Paradigms--Small Shifts Create HUGE Changes (Parts I and II)
Part I—Life On the Edge
“It is not given us to live lives of undisrupted calm, boredom and mediocrity. It is given us to be edge-dwellers.” Jay Deacon
This quote has raised revolutionary thoughts within me. I have known that life is to be lived. That to achieve anything, even remotely worth achieving, one must get out of one’s comfort zone, confront fear, and do things that are not normally within the realm of our daily grind. One of my favorite definitions of happiness is: “People are happiest when they are actively in pursuit of a worthwhile dream or goal.” Happiness is in the journey, not in the achievement, so once we achieve a goal and the “butterflies” are gone, we must immediately set another one in order to stay happy.
We have so many “buzz words.” “Living on the edge,” “paradigm shift,” “comfort zone,” “road to success,” etc…And, I have blogged before about “the daily grind.” But, why have we come up with all these buzz words, clever phrases, twists of wit? Another favorite saying of mine is: “We teach best what we most need to learn.” I believe that statement has a lot to do with why we hear people spouting these “words of wisdom” to each other. We want to live it. We need to live it, and we remind ourselves of that by repeating our buzz words and phrases, and offering up wisdom to those around us.
But, if we know all these sayings and phrases and buzz words that we offer up so often to others, why are so many of us still not living on that edge? We don’t live each day with some butterflies in our stomachs. We are not on the road to success, or even in the process of actively pursuing a worthwhile dream or goal.
Part II—Dream Stealers
We live in that realm of mediocrity, undisrupted calm, boredom. How many of us go out and do the things that we love to do for fun, but we are still bored? Most have “given up on life.” (Another buzz word!) I believe that we all had dreams and goals when we were young, and society wore them down, drug them down, trampled them underfoot. Here’s a great buzz word: misery loves company!! How many times have we heard that? Do you ever hear just one person complaining within a group? No! Usually most members of the group will join in the shower of negativity that is raining down, if not actively, at least by nodding acceptance.
As we grow older there is an all pervasive swing from happy, positive, forward looking enthusiasm, to dark despair, foreboding, an endless life of drudgery, going through each day just to get to the weekend, so we can do it all again next week. What happened? Where did the excitement with life go?
It’s still there…it’s out on the edge. We’ve seen them—those people who always seem to be “up.” The go-getters who never seem to have a bad day, never have met an obstacle that they haven’t over come. The people you love to hate who never use the word “problem” and always substitute it with “challenge.” What is it in their hardwiring that is different from everyone else’s?
There is a paradoxical statement among runners—the slower you run up a hill, the faster you run up it. It seemingly doesn’t make sense, but it works. There is actually a physiology about it that I could get into of why the statement can physically be true, but my point here is that sometimes what appears to be a paradox ends up being a beautiful truth. Those people that are the go-getters--they think differently than most of us. Is it a dramatic difference? No, it’s a small difference. The paradox is that a small difference in the way that we think, yields a HUGE difference in our lives and relations.
Most of us wonder how the people out there living on the edge can do it. They are constantly confronted with challenges, they are always taking risks, they are living a scary life that could all come down tomorrow…yet they are happy, excited and continue to succeed. How do they do it? We usually just shake our heads.
What is it that holds the rest of us back while the few live the lives
we dream of? To be answered in the next installment...
“It is not given us to live lives of undisrupted calm, boredom and mediocrity. It is given us to be edge-dwellers.” Jay Deacon
This quote has raised revolutionary thoughts within me. I have known that life is to be lived. That to achieve anything, even remotely worth achieving, one must get out of one’s comfort zone, confront fear, and do things that are not normally within the realm of our daily grind. One of my favorite definitions of happiness is: “People are happiest when they are actively in pursuit of a worthwhile dream or goal.” Happiness is in the journey, not in the achievement, so once we achieve a goal and the “butterflies” are gone, we must immediately set another one in order to stay happy.
We have so many “buzz words.” “Living on the edge,” “paradigm shift,” “comfort zone,” “road to success,” etc…And, I have blogged before about “the daily grind.” But, why have we come up with all these buzz words, clever phrases, twists of wit? Another favorite saying of mine is: “We teach best what we most need to learn.” I believe that statement has a lot to do with why we hear people spouting these “words of wisdom” to each other. We want to live it. We need to live it, and we remind ourselves of that by repeating our buzz words and phrases, and offering up wisdom to those around us.
But, if we know all these sayings and phrases and buzz words that we offer up so often to others, why are so many of us still not living on that edge? We don’t live each day with some butterflies in our stomachs. We are not on the road to success, or even in the process of actively pursuing a worthwhile dream or goal.
Part II—Dream Stealers
We live in that realm of mediocrity, undisrupted calm, boredom. How many of us go out and do the things that we love to do for fun, but we are still bored? Most have “given up on life.” (Another buzz word!) I believe that we all had dreams and goals when we were young, and society wore them down, drug them down, trampled them underfoot. Here’s a great buzz word: misery loves company!! How many times have we heard that? Do you ever hear just one person complaining within a group? No! Usually most members of the group will join in the shower of negativity that is raining down, if not actively, at least by nodding acceptance.
As we grow older there is an all pervasive swing from happy, positive, forward looking enthusiasm, to dark despair, foreboding, an endless life of drudgery, going through each day just to get to the weekend, so we can do it all again next week. What happened? Where did the excitement with life go?
It’s still there…it’s out on the edge. We’ve seen them—those people who always seem to be “up.” The go-getters who never seem to have a bad day, never have met an obstacle that they haven’t over come. The people you love to hate who never use the word “problem” and always substitute it with “challenge.” What is it in their hardwiring that is different from everyone else’s?
There is a paradoxical statement among runners—the slower you run up a hill, the faster you run up it. It seemingly doesn’t make sense, but it works. There is actually a physiology about it that I could get into of why the statement can physically be true, but my point here is that sometimes what appears to be a paradox ends up being a beautiful truth. Those people that are the go-getters--they think differently than most of us. Is it a dramatic difference? No, it’s a small difference. The paradox is that a small difference in the way that we think, yields a HUGE difference in our lives and relations.
Most of us wonder how the people out there living on the edge can do it. They are constantly confronted with challenges, they are always taking risks, they are living a scary life that could all come down tomorrow…yet they are happy, excited and continue to succeed. How do they do it? We usually just shake our heads.
What is it that holds the rest of us back while the few live the lives
we dream of? To be answered in the next installment...
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