When we shift our paradigm, the world looks different. And shifting our paradigm is changing the lens through which we observe, evaluate and judge a situation. It also challenges status quo.

I recall a touching story I read of a man who was traveling on the subway train with his two young children who were running around and disturbing the other passengers. And this man was doing nothing to stop them, sitting there quite unconcerned. After a while when it was getting a bit much, the person who wrote the story narrates that he was getting angry and finally spoke to the man quite sternly to control his children. The man suddenly looked up and apologised for their behaviour and said – ‘Their mother died today and we are just returning from the funeral. I guess they don’t know how to process what has happened.’ In that moment anger turned to empathy.

Things are not always as they appear. Most times there is a reason behind what we observe and judge. Finding out the reason shifts our paradigm.

We often believe our way of looking at things is not only correct but the only way. Dropping our ego shifts our paradigm.

We live with self-imposed limitations. When we discover a different way of doing things, our understanding of ourselves and the world changes. Learning new ways shifts our paradigm.

Sometimes life restricts us and in that constraint, we discover unknown skills, talents and options. Managing constraints shifts our paradigm.

Scientific, business and human breakthroughs have come when someone has dared to ask – What If. Fearlessness shifts our paradigm. And value gets created when paradigms shift.

And when at work, family or in our relationships we find we are getting stuck and not making headway, we often wait for the situation to change. Things can and will change when we learn to change the way we look at life. Sometimes it’s not others holding us back. It’s our own paradigm.