Bailey Sergott (830)
One day when I was in middle school, I woke up in panic, it was 8:30 and I was late! I hurried and got in the shower, got dressed, and did my hair and makeup. When I went downstairs my entire family was making sandwiches... odd choice for breakfast I thought. I began making my chocolate milk that I had every morning to start my day when my father asked me "what are you doing?" I confusingly said that I was getting ready for school when he replied, "why are you getting ready at 8:30 at night?" That was the day I had my first paradigm shift. I truly believed that I had just woken up late for school the next morning. My brain was frazzled, running around trying to get ready for the "day" as fast as I could. I can still feel the moment of confusion when I realized it was nighttime and I had been looking at the night from a completely different perspective than my family. Sometimes all it takes is to back up, look at something in its entirety, and try to look at a situation from a new, fresh perspective.
Quick Fix? What's that?
A change of perspective is sometimes all we need to realize how to fix a situation. In Stephen R. Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Covey expresses that we often want a "quick fix." But, in order to change something, you must see it for its whole. Convey talks about when his wife Sandra and he tried to help their son in baseball but nothing was working. They would give him encouraging words and tell others to back off when they made fun of him. Eventually, Sandra and Convey realized maybe they were approaching the situation wrong. They realized that when they were going out of their way to protect him, they were treating him as the problem. The way they were talking to him was not the same as they were seeing him. Once he changed how he approached his son, his son began improving tremendously.
Change of life decision
In 2017 my parents decided to make a change and invest in a business. In the years prior my father had been working at CSI Geoturf and my mother was working for CVS. They had both worked there for years and it felt like no matter how high up they got in the company, they always got screwed over. They worked hard for years just to be left feeling unhappy. As the years went on, they started discussing what they need to do and how to make a change. From all the years working as employees they decided that they had learned enough to become employers. Their perspective changed when the realization came that maybe they needed to stop working so hard at their unhappy job, but to work hard to find something new. They took their time and started planning for the business that they wanted. Running a business is not something that happens overnight, and most paradigm shifts take time. My father could have put everything he had into his job at CSI Geoturf and still left unhappy, he needed something new, a change in his life.
First time in a sorority..
Albert Einstein said, "The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them." This is a very interesting quote because it gives a new perspective. I remember when I first joined a sorority as a junior in college. I was so excited to be surrounded by sisters who give unconditional support. But when I joined I did not feel that but instead I felt like I didn't belong. I was so disappointed when nobody reached out to me or went out of their way to try to hang out with me. Eventually, I was getting angry and thinking to myself "why did I even join a sorority?" It took me about 8 months to realize that when I contacted other girls and asked them to hangout, they would do the same. That's when I realized that if I want to be a part of a sorority that is always there for one another, enjoys hanging out with each other, and does things together, then I needed to be that person. The inside-out approach states that you should start with your deepest inside part of self. If I wanted a better relationship with my sisters, I had to become a better sister.
Final Thoughts
Becoming the best, most successful version that you can be takes time and patience. You must be able to look at the world in different and new perspectives. In relationships, people so often want the other person to change but very few want to do the changing. I like the inside-out approach because it brings awareness to the fact that change starts with yourself and good things take time.
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