Thinking outside the box

We always hear seniors, elders, parents motivating us to start thinking outside the box. They want us to find different ways to accomplish the task. So, what does it really mean? What is it that we are expected to do?

The term “thinking outside the box” literally tells us that open up your thinking and think bigger than the box. Metaphorically, it means challenge the status quo, develop new perspectives or do things differently. This is something I truly believe in. Hence, the tag line of my blog home page – “Winners don’t do different things, they do things differently!”

Now, the next question comes to mind is we know I have to think differently, but how do I do that? How do I develop that skill? It goes back to the meaning of the phrase, developing perspectives. Some of the things that work for me are –

Grit

Life is a matter of making tough choices. Your character is determined by what you do and how you do it. Doing the right thing, accepting your mistakes and learning from it requires a lot of courage. It takes a lot of effort to be true to your ideals, upholding your principles even when you are confronted with opposition or roadblocks.

Do your basics right

This is my favorite one! The toughest one, as well. Anytime you are given options, natural human tendency is to do something quickly. Doing the right thing takes a lot of inner resolve to abstain from distractions or temptations. The next step requires you to know the best practices of the task you are working on. Best practices can be learnt from the master in your profession and practicing it till you get it. Then add your flavor to it to make it your own. This habit will train your brain to keep doing these basics right!

Focus

One of the very important aspect for completing any task. Unless you have focus, you cannot give your 110%. If you can’t give your best, you will always be mediocre. If you’re mediocre you will always be catching up and never be ahead of the curve to think differently.

Reading/Listening

Read anything that you get. Book, blog post, news article, forum, anything! It will always give you new perspective. Like Bill Gates does, when he picks up to work on a topic, he will read 4-5 books on that subject. Then form his own opinion and come up with his own execution plan. What this tells us is just knowing a way to solve a problem is good but knowing multiple ways and choosing the best way pragmatically is the best. These days with podcasts & audibles if you’re not a reader, you can always listen. At the end of the day, it’s all about gaining knowledge to gain perspective!

Experimenting

The next natural step comes is execution. You gained knowledge, you have focus now you need to execute. Execution starts with experiments. Chunk up your big task into smaller manageable pieces of work. Implement it, get feedback, learn from it. If it goes as per your plan, persevere. Move on to the next step. If it doesn’t go as per plan, pivot, learn from your mistakes and adjust the plan and implement again. Eat elephant one bite at a time.

In summary, if you train your mind and practice everyday this is an acquired skill that will help you go long way.