Last Updated on July 18, 2014
Paradigms are meant to shift. A non-shifting paradigm means that there is an inherent and entrenched belief system which refuses to accommodate changes. Certain principles can retain such intractable resistance; deeply-held systems based upon historical convention, customs and cultural foundations should never be discarded without a rational basis; but to hold on to a set of beliefs without a foundational methodology of defending the very core of a system, is to merely do something out of habit. And that is the point, isn’t it? Actions based upon habit for habit’s sake, are mere thoughtless and unjustified movements.
Work often becomes such an unprovoked endeavor; for, to engage in mindless, repetitive modalities, provides a semblance of security and safeguards. Then, when a medical condition interrupts one’s life, you begin to miss the mundane. For Federal and Postal employees who suffer from a medical condition, such that the medical condition begins to impact one’s capacity to perform the essential elements of one’s job, the yearning for that time before when the monotony of repetitive work provided the assurance of routine and repose, begins to magnify with exponential significance.
Filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether the Federal or Postal employee is under FERS or CSRS, should always be an option. If one pauses because the paradigm which one operates under has become intractable and entrenched, it is time to consider a paradigm shift. It is not only in science that paradigm shifts are necessary; and, indeed, Thomas Kuhn’s contribution to the historical perspective of scientific progression has taught us much, both as to disciplines, as well as for individuals.
The shifting of one’s own paradigm may be the first important shift in making a proper decision concerning the preparatory steps in filing for Federal OPM Disability Retirement; and that is the key, both in science, and in one’s own personal life and endeavors.
Sincerely,
Robert R. McGill, Esquire