What is Praxis? Simply put “The integration of belief with behaviour” See the Wikipedia definition

So why am I pointing out leaders should look at the use and perhaps shift or change of our praxis? Simply put because I think we need to.

If you’ll let me take you down the rabbit hole of this way of thinking.

We are all leaders. In business, organizations, companies, family, etc and we have beliefs and we do things in a certain way because of those beliefs. But are they the right way? Or even a good way? How can we lead a group or team of people if we are going on the assumption that this way is the best way, because we were just TOLD it was.

Napoleon Hill in Think and Grow Rich says, “There’s a difference between wishing for something and being ready to receive it. No one is ready for the thing until they believe they can acquire it. The state of mind must be belief and not mere hope or wish. Open mindedness is essential to belief… Close minds will not accept the idea, they just won’t.”

If it’s ok with you, I’m going to breakdown the quote and maybe clarify it a bit. It took me a while to figure this out, but I think I got it. Let me know if I have it wrong though. I have an open mind and love learning!

Napoleon says, “There’s a difference between wishing for something (just on the surface or conscious level of thinking) and being ready to receive it (here is where we get into Praxis way of thinking. The deep core of us, our gut, the subconscious level of thinking. This is where behaviour takes up and we do what we do, from.) No one is ready for the things until they believe they can acquire it. (Again, here you must change your programming, the praxis deep within is controlling you and you see the results in your world what you truly believe.) The state of mind must be belief (deep seated belief) and not mere hope or wish (the thought of it would be nice, I think I can do this or I believe what you are saying but I won’t really change my pattern of living or being). Open mindedness is essential to belief… (if you want to change your life, your business, make work a better place, this is critical to do).”

This quote reminded me of the story about the ham roast:

A young gentleman watched his new wife prepare their Sunday dinner one day and saw her cut off the ends of their ham roast. Put it in the prepared pan then place it in the oven. Curious, he asked her why she cut off the ends? She told him it’s the way her Mom always prepared the roast.

The next time they went to visit her parents, the young gentleman asked her Mom about the roast and cutting off the ends. She looked at him funny but answered, “Because that’s the way my mother cooked it.” Well, now he was really curious.

Later that week, he took a trip to the senior home where the grandmother lived. During the visit, he asked her about why she would cut the ends of the ham roast off. She laughed and said, “Back when I was cooking it, I had to cut the ends off so that it would fit the pan I had.”

Look at the way you manage your business, department, home, wherever it is you feel needs to be looked at. Do you see anything in it that needs changing? Look within yourself. Does your PRAXIS need a tweak? Are you doing what you saw someone else door was told to do, and thought it was the only choice in how to do it? Perhaps it’s time for you to change your thinking, your belief and I mean really change it. It really is simple, but it won’t be easy. It’s so ingrained in us to do things and believe things in a certain way that it’s going to take conscious work to make a new programming. But trust me, it’s soooooo going to be worth it.

Today I’m going to work on one belief that I have and make a new one to replace it.

You can’t change a program, you can only overwrite it with a new one. Our minds are just like computers, only better.

Next time, let’s talk about paradigms and how they affect our lives, careers, businesses, even family…