Changing Your Paradigm
Changing your paradigm means to examine any “rut” you may be stuck in. You will need to change how you think about this old way of life in order to make a change.
If you’re going to change the paradigm, you’ve got to change everything. You’ve got to change how you think. You’ve got to change how you react. You’ve got to change how you look at it. You’ve got to change how you think about it. You have to work at it every day, because human beings are people who love to live in a rut. And you know what a rut is.
One of the greatest examples of a rut goes back to the 1840s, when the big land run on Oklahoma was happening. Those big, old prairie schooners were loaded down with a ton of supplies and plows and whatever, and then the pioneers headed across the Oklahoma Territory to stake their land.
When the rains came in the fall, they cut ruts in that muddy prairie three feet deep. Then when colder weather came and those ruts froze, it was treacherous, because when prairie schooners dropped down into those ruts, they couldn’t get them up. They would literally have to stop and put in blocks and use fulcrums to jack them up out of the ruts.
Continuing west, the trails parted outside of St. Louis. The one trail became the Santa Fe Trail, the California Trail, and the Oregon Trail. It got to the point where they posted a sign where the trails separated that said: “Choose your rut; you’ll be in it for the next 2,000 miles.”
