Paradigms and Mindsets

A mindset is how your mind is set up to think. Like a mindset, a paradigm is how mankind  understands and explains the world (i.e., science). Often, we use mindsets and paradigms interchangeably.

How your mind is set up to think predetermines how you interpret and respond to everything. Mindsets are helpful to make sense of the world, but they also create cognitive bias.

A paradigm shift or a change of mindset does not happen overnight. Think of mindsets as mental models or your version of science. All mindsets have anomalies that cannot be explained but are brushed away as acceptable errors or are just ignored. It is when enough of these anomalies occur that cannot be explained by the adopted mindset that the existing mindset is thrown into a crisis.

Setting up your mind to think differently does not take place without significant anxiety or conflict. Shifts take time due to the explosive intellectual battle necessary to disprove old models and for the ego to accept that It is imperfect.

Many can’t make the shift because they simply resist or because of their dependency on old theories.

We have all run into individuals who did not want to be confused by facts because their minds are made up.

Society often labels those with ADHD as unmotivated when their minds are set up to think of motivation as what they should do. The ego will not acknowledge that, whatever you did, you did because you were motivated to do it.

If you are watching Netflix instead of doing your work, you are doing so because you are motivated to watch Netflix.

Arguing this observation with someone who has a “should do” mindset is explosive because the ego delights in pointing out the flaws of others.

Significant changes in science come only from undisputed proof. The same goes for an individual’s mindset. Often, a shift requires proof, like being in an experience. Even with proof, it often takes a generation to accept proven new concepts. Like realizing the world is not flat. Or like Galileo pointing out that the earth rotates around the sun or Einstein proving that space and time are curved.

NOTE: Ahas and insights are often confused with paradigms and mindsets. They are completely different. An Aha can lead to a change in mindset, and a new mindset can produce new ahas, but the two are distinctly separate.