Have you ever wondered why life is unfair? Why the resources are not equally allocated and the access of opportunities is neither equally easy nor equally hard? The answer is quite hard to find especially nowadays, as our lives has been getting more complicated and risky than ever before. It is time to think about changing ourselves before we change the world.
I am inviting you to rethink your position in the universe from a perspective that informs 3 major points: 1) The world has the needed infrastructure for success; 2) We (as human beings) have the internal needed infrastructure for success; and 3) disparities can generate more positive outcomes if we hold a positive mental framework.
From the above points we can conclude that achieving what we are after is pretty much dependent on how we perceive the world, ourselves, and the opportunities out there. In fact, those three elements are very interdependent and interconnected, and most importantly, they lead us to one golden rule:
The journey of achievement always begins and ends with working on the self
So how can we have such a supportive mindset that enables us to change our perception of the outer world and the self? Actually, the PAD framework provides us with simple, yet comprehensive ideas that are easy to adopt, and can make real differences in our daily life as well as our ability to pursue bold goals and dreams.
The PAD framework for success and good results in difficult environments. All rights reserved Kazem Hemeida 2010
PAD stands for Patience, Appreciation, and Differentiation. And those three words are the cornerstones of the needed mental infrastructure for achieving success and good results in difficult environments. Simply, the term difficult environment refers to a situation where there are numerous obstacles and drawback preventing us from having access to sufficient resources and opportunities.
The PAD framework can be adopted through this sequence:
1- Patience [The River]:
Go and ask anybody around if they can get what they want immediately, and some of them would say yes and some of them would say no. Ask them again if there is a strong correlation between instant gratification and happiness and all of them would say no. The reason behind that is we have endless needs, and the ultimate, yet most hidden need is contentment and happiness. Therefore, in order to feel happy and content, we should understand that we need time and effort to become who we want, and get what we are after. Patience is the key to this. It is when we do something knowing that the return will come later. We can learn patience from the long river:
- Understand that it is a long journey
- Have a vision of you reaching your goals and achieving your dreams
- Believe in your abilities even if they are not salient at the moment
- Embrace the idea that success should come after a failure, and competencies are developed when incompetencies are identified
2- Appreciation [The stop Sign]:
Appreciation is such a priceless resource we can have at no financial price. How many times we compare ourselves to others who are more ‘lucky’ than us? And how many times we do the same with those who are less fortunate? How much do we focus on what we don’t have and forget the uncountable things we have got?
Appreciating ourselves as we are and appreciating everything in our lives is key catalyst for patience and contentment. In order for us to be able to do so. We should create a number of stop signs everyday to:
- Make continuous stops from daily life activities, routine tasks and social comparisons to appreciate how much we have been improving over time
- Make a short stop after every mistake we make to learn new things, not to blame ourselves
- Appreciate difficulties and hardships because they provide opportunities for growth
3- Differentiation [The Tree]
We find it easy to believe that 6 billion people do not have two persons with identical fingerprints. But we find it hard to believe that each and every one of us can add to humanity in a very unique way. Truly, believing that we were all born unique and with enough greatness to present an unprecedented contribution to humanity and the universe. However, we cannot deliver this novel product alone, rather, we need to work with other persons and synergize with other efforts, and most importantly, to discover who we really are. The Tree can teach us this lesson:
- To figure out one’s unique contribution to humanity and the universe we are in. We are here for a reason
- To understand that such contribution will not make a change without the synergy with other contributions
Those three elements or cornerstones form a loop. In other words, patience, appreciation, and seeking differentiation will definitely lead us to more patience for much bigger goals.
© Kazem Hemeida 2010
