Living In a Box

“As soon as you open your mind to doing things differently, the doors of opportunity practically fly off their hinges.” ― Jay Abraham
Imagine you would be living in an invisible box that wraps up your whole body, which is symbolic for the box you are living in (the box you will have to abandon when trying to think outside the box). Wherever you go the box surrounds you and protects you from the “real” reality, which is so complex that your brain couldn't handle it. All the information that tries to travel around your "invisible box" will be filtered and selected and only the most important ones are being consciously recognized. The filter stands for your sub consciousness that filters all the information and erases or transforms them if necessary, depending of your experiences, mindsets, attitudes opinions and the way you look at things in general.
Thinking outside the box would mean that you jump out of the "invisible box' that completely surrounds you, step out, leave all your experiences, mindsets and attitudes behind and start to view things from a completely different perspective: outside of the box; unfiltered, unbiased, open for suggestions, willing to empathize with others opinions, but also ready to be different and to think what no one else has ever thought of. It also means that you leave everything behind you thought you would know, everything that was taught to you in school and start to approach specific situations and problems from a completely different point of view than you did before.
For me, thinking outside the box does not only include all of what I just mentioned, but also the openness not to stubbornly think that my own opinion is this right opinion even when I'm being proven wrong by someone else. Sounds simple, but you wouldn’t believe how many people stubbornly persist on their own opinion and linger within their very own “box”, even if they are totally mistaken, but that’s also an ego thing.
I think the above describes it pretty good what it means to think outside the box, however I would also like to show you an excellent example of a person who was clearly thinking within the box: Charles H. Duell, who was the Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office, who said the following:
“Everything that can be invented has been invented.”
Duell’s statement is a fantastic example for thinking inside the box. The quote however gets even more remarkable when considering that he made this statement in 1899, when people were still traveling by horse and train, long before automobiles, airplanes, jets, spaceships, microwaves, computers and mobile phones were invented.
How to think outside the box?
The ability to think outside the box requires above all one thing: creativity. Especially creative people have discovered the approach to “think outside the box” as an immense advantage for various facets of their lives, often as a characteristic that helps them to earn a living.
Slip into a new role
By slipping into a new role you can change your perspective and the way you think about things drastically. You can feel free to take yourself a minutes to let your mind wander through your environment and to discover all the new things you didn’t even noticed before. If you are sitting in your living room you could pick up whatever looks interesting to you and discover the item all over again. You might even notice something about this item that you haven’t known until now.
Step into another world
Stepping into another world is one of the most efficient ways to change your perspective and to discover insights that remained completely unknown to you. But how do I step into another world, besides the quite expensive alternatives of travelling around the world?
Find a new hobby- say that you normally play tennis every other day... You can change it up and go play basketball or another sport. And it doesn't have to even be a change as big as this. it can be a tiny change as well!
Meet new people- This doesn't mean that you have to completely ditch your friends. This simply means that you should be more open minded to meet new people. You never know what could come from one simple conversation.
Gather knowledge about topics that interest you - So what if you are a lawyer, if you want to know about graphic design or sports, don't let you job get in the way. Learn what you want to learn.
There are so many ways to step into a completely different world, for example by going to a library. Not only that the environment of a library is completely different of our hectic business environment, but you can also gather so much knowledge on a variety of different topics.
Stepping into another world in general allows you to look at problems differently, which will also increase the possible solutions that start to come up.
Reframe
I really love to reframe things and to put them into another context. “The glass is half full”, would be the reframed version of “the glass is half empty”, with a completely different – and more positive – meaning. Reframing can also help you to step out of your box and to view things outside of the box; from another perspective.
Don’t think in routines
Reframing gives you the possibility to change the meaning of a situation, task or problem. It allows you to choose what it means for you, which gives you the freedom to change your point of view.
Just change up one thing a day and you will become more creative, you will have a much more positive view on life, you will be open to see things in ways that you have never even thought of, you will find new answers to your questions. and you won't be living in a box.