Have you ever missed out (or nearly missed out) on a great chance in your life, by framing things in terms of your own expectations?  Perhaps it was a person who, at first glance, you judged negatively, and who later turned out to be somebody you would have liked to have known.  Or perhaps it was a business idea that a friend once offered to share, and which you rejected as being ridiculous.  You know, the friend that just opened her 50^th store, in New York, and her 51^st store, in Paris.

Perhaps a new thought or idea was just too far outside of your expected frames, and you rejected it without really even considering it with an open mind.  Perhaps you were just overly content with your worldview, and you didn’t want to leave the security of your comfort zone.  After all, who wants to question what they’ve known all their life?  Who wants to invite potential disappointment in the realization that maybe—just maybe—you might have been somewhat off-base in your long-held position on a particular matter?

In my book, The Enlightening, a series of extraordinary, eye-opening experiences is the impetus for a full-out paradigm shift.  The nature of the shift is both personal and universal, and my desire as the author is to share this personal change, and this new way of thinking about the universe, with the reader.

In real life, finding the inspiration and fortitude necessary to make a sea change in position or attitude is very difficult, and nearly impossible, for most people.  Have you ever found a way, yourself, to surmount these struggles in order to make positive changes in your thoughts or actions?  How were you rewarded for your openness to a new way of thinking?  Or have your failures to do so come back to haunt you when you discover, too late, what might have been, had you given it a chance?  What was the price you paid for the stubbornness we, as humans, seem to inherit in our nature?