You CAN Think Outside The Box

How many times have you gone home and thought “Well…I really blew it!” You just think that there’s no coming back from that. You messed up, did something you had told yourself you weren’t going to do anymore, said something that was awkward and unneeded. You believe that there’s no chance for that to happen now, so you just give up. After all, you know there’s no use in trying anymore at this point, not after that. From that point on you give it no effort. You ruminate over it all day long, every day…but you never act upon it.

What would happen if you did act upon it? What would happen if you sat down to write out opposing sides? What would happen if you wrote out all the scenarios that could happen, from the worst case scenario to the most amazing and perfect finale you can imagine? Write out all the different things you can say and read them over. How can you put the opposite foot forward and show who you really are? What would that look like? It wouldn’t look like how you tried to do it last time. No, it’s time to think in a different way. Choose someone that you admire, someone that you would love to be mentored by. Begin asking yourself what would that person do in this situation? For me I started asking myself “What would Grant Cardone do?” This led me down a path I had no idea I would ever be interested in. The reason I picked him in the beginning is because I thought he was intriguing yet extraordinarily far removed from my world. I felt like he was so different from me that he must be from a different planet…and that’s just the point, whoever you choose needs to be very different from you. If they are not, how can you expect to think in a new way? This is what you’re trying to do when you do this. Because that old saying “think outside the box” is completely useless because you go around in circles, thinking in the same way that you always have. Albert Einstein said “ You cannot solve a problem by the same mind that created it.” You can think creatively, but that will always get you in the same thinking patterns as well. In order to get new solutions and genuinely “ think outside the box”, you must learn how to think like someone you are not. This will help your thought patterns change and integrate with a new perspective and way of thought. It is you training yourself to think in new ways. 

It may be more of an amazing journey than you had ever imagined. It may lead you down a path that can radically transform your life for the better. It may transform your life from chrysalis to butterfly, and when you feel strong, you can revisit that thing you were ruminating about, if you decide that it’s something you still want to do by the time you get there.

~ Janice M. Burke

Image by Tara Winstead