However,
it is critical that we remain receptive the potential need for changing our paradigms. Short of that, when our defenses are down, new information
may sneak up on us and catch us off guard before we can put up a defense. No matter how it happens, once we have a
realization that one or more of our paradigms was inaccurate and needing to be
changed, or even replaced, everything is different from that point on. We often call this an 'Ah-ha' moment.
Some
'ah ha' moments are smaller refinements, while others can be life
altering. I can remember a couple of key
'ah ha' moments that were huge game changers for me.
One
was when I wanted a motorcycle as boy, and the only way I could make that
happen was to buy a rusted pile a junk and rebuild it myself. Much greater than the joy of finally riding
my rebuilt motorcycle, was the power of the realization that if I could make
this happen for myself as boy in 5th grade, I could do anything, and the world
of possibilities unfolded right before my eyes.
I consider that realization a tremendous gift.
A
second 'ah ha' happened for me in college. I have to admit that I coasted
through high school and into college.
The work was easy enough to complete without ever taking a book home,
and typically achieving A's and B's for my final grades. My Chemistry Professor must have spotted
this, and whenever I would go to hand in my lab assignment, he would snatch it
up from his lab assistant and say, "I will grade Mr. Sims lab
assignment." He would find some
detail that was in error, even something like leaving off the date, and fail my
assignment so I would have to come back another day and redo the lab.
This
repeated for a couple of weeks. At first
I was starting to get pretty irritated
and then I declared war (but in a good way) and determined that I would beat
him at his own game. I resolved that my
work, not only in the lab, but everywhere else, would be absolutely
flawless. Of course, this was not
anywhere as easy as what I had been doing all through school up to that point;
I had to study endlessly, I had to triple check my work, I had to maintain a
discipline of doing whatever it took, and then, just a little bit more. When it was time to hand in my work, I would
refuse to give it to anyone other than the professor. And you know what, he won! Because now that I had discovered a new work
ethic and that I could turn in consistent A's for Chemistry, I realized that I
could do the same for Calculus, French and Sociology. At that point, there was no turning back
because I changed my paradigm forever. I
could not un-discover what I had learned about my capacity to do top notch
work!
Now,
as we get older, and wiser, we don't necessarily need mentors to set us up to
trip over these 'ah ha' moments, we can even set ourselves up to go through the
next paradigm revisions we need to achieve for our continual growth and
evolution. Furthermore, it is now our
turn to offer these opportunities for life altering realizations back to the
next generation.
That
is what I spent most of yesterday on. I
hope, for at least some of the 15 local high school seniors we spent the day
with yesterday, that they will have come away with one or two valuable 'Ah ha'
moments. It would give me great joy, on
behalf of our organization, to have’ paid it forward’. But in addition to the obvious opportunities
presented by young students who have temporarily lost their way, we need to be
aware of how we can help our staff find the ‘ah ha’ moments they need to keep
progressing towards greater and greater contribution and achievement.
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