Are you using the Right Life Map?
Posted on January 13, 2013 by Sharon Beyer, One of Thousands of Performance Coaches on Noomii.
Coaching can shift your paradigm so that you can look at your life with a new lens and make appropriate adjustments to reach your goals
In the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey talks early on about paradigms and paradigm shifts. Understood simply, a paradigm is the lens through which you see the world. Covey uses the metaphor of a map to help readers understand this concept. The map is analogous to life. The paradigm is the angle at which we see our life (the map). Sometimes we need to shift the paradigm of the map in order to find our destination. Often times, we are looking at the map from the wrong angle without even knowing.
Imagine being in Chicago with a map of Pennsylvania. On top of that, you have it upside down. No one told you about this error; so, you’re still trying to figure out how to get to the Sears Tower. As determined as you may be to make it there, it is probably not going to happen. You need a paradigm shift, a new way of seeing the map. It takes a new angle to realize you are not even using the right map. Now, compare that to your own life. Do you have the right map? Are you aware of the angle you are viewing it from? Will the current perspective get you were you want to go?
Combined, the information gleaned from MBTI and the process of coaching can shift your paradigm so that you can look at your life with a new lens and make appropriate adjustments to reach your goals. Through the strengthening of your own preferences and learning how to work with non-familiar preferences, you can begin to be better equipped to manage conflict, communicate with and influence others, and handle personality differences. Most importantly though, you will receive clues that lead to a deeper understanding of your own personal paradigm. Once you understand that, you and the coach can begin to examine behaviors, attitudes, and interactions from a different paradigm with the intention of adjusting those that need to be in order to reach your destination.
Check out my blog: http://newendingscoaching.com/blog/are-you-using-the-right-map/
