Posts Tagged ‘breaking out-of-the-box’

The Challenge to Thinking Differently

Tuesday, July 14th, 2009

Each of us has our own unique gifts and an ability to see the world from our own point of view. These gifts and talents, along with an ability to think for our selves, are needed to support the whole, our family, our community, our nation, and our world.

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Each of us has the potential to offer our thoughts and gifts to influence the well being of the whole.

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The gifts that each of us has to offer is our ability to see the way things are from our unique perspective. Our perspective, added to that of others, contributes to seeing the whole picture.

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In order to think for ourselves and share our gifts we need to let go our fears of the unknown and what people will think. We need to believe in something greater than ourselves so that we feel free to express what we are thinking.

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Thinking for ourselves, thinking differently from others, means that we will make mistakes as we take risks to search for a greater understanding of what is possible.

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Thinking differently means questioning everything and not being afraid to express those questions.

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Thinking differently means letting go of judgment and being open to new possibilities, new perspectives, and greater diversity.

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We need to learn how to value our own gifts and each other’s gifts so that we can learn to work together in a complementary and cooperative way for the benefit of our whole living system.

Let me know what you think.

Until next week, remember the only boxes that exist are the ones you create yourself.

Expecting Success

Saturday, May 2nd, 2009

Have you ever wondered why some people have greater success than others or asked yourself why they appear to be blessed with getting everything they go after? Why is it that some people seem to have that special something that allows them to achieve more than others?

Think about this. Behind every overnight success is 20 years of hard and, in some cases, torturous work. No one achieves success without some level of sacrifice, effort, determination and persistence. You have everything you need inside of you to achieve whatever success you can imagine. You are no different than the person who owns a car dealership, develops land, creates a franchise, or invents the next big product line. You can do anything you set your mind to. What do you want to create for yourself?

“To dream anything you want to dream, that is the beauty of the human mind. To do anything that you want to do, that is the strength of the human will. To trust yourself to test your limits, that’s the courage to succeed.” Bernard Edmunds

One thing very successful people have in common is that they focus positive energy on the expectation of success. When they go out into the world each and everyday they expect success no matter how small that may be. They focus their energy on the ideal outcomes they desire from a meeting before entering that meeting. They think positively about how their ideas will be received and embraced. They know that if they focus positive energy on the expectation of succeeding that it will bring them that much closer to realizing success.

The power of focusing on positive outcomes in life cannot be underestimated. When you project positive energy on something you want to create for yourself or the world you are one great big step closer to making that goal a reality. Successful people will visualize in their minds the ideal outcomes they are looking for, allowing those outcomes to become real in their imagination.

“Our imagination is the only limit to what we can hope to have in the future.”

Charles Kettering

For example, if you want to win a bass tournament like The Elite Series Sooner Run held on Grand Lake, you will come one step closer to winning by imagining where the bass are going to be caught, the casts, the smells, the feelings and catching the big one. Imagine being on the stage with the winning weight, being handed the trophy and the oversized check, the applause from the crowd and the celebration that follows. When your imagination makes this so real that when you come back to reality you are not sure if it was real or not, you are on your way to winning the tournament. Athletes have used this technique for centuries. Whatever success you want to achieve, visualize it in your mind and imagine it being real over and over and over again. Eventually it will become a reality.

The other thing successful people have in common is that they know when they don’t succeed, which will happen more often than not, they will not give up and they will continue to keep the positive energy flowing. They look for the lessons they can learn from their failures and then apply those lessons when they try for it again. This is not always easy. The falls of life can be hard, but this is where the possibility of success and giving up takes place. They get themselves back up and dust themselves off with an attitude of “keep on keeping on.”

“Nothing can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genus will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the work is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.” Calvin Coolidge

You have read it before in What Box? and you will continue to read it: “We all have a purpose in life.” Many successful people have discovered and embraced their purpose in life as a way to gain continued and growing success. There is quite possibly nothing more important in your life than focusing on understanding and living your life’s purpose which will make it easier for you to focus on the positive through what you may perceive as negative experiences. As a result, you will find that will become easier for you to expect success in whatever you do and your ability to stretch and take risks in life will enable your successes to grow and increase the older and wiser you get.

Next time you are looking towards creating success in your life go ahead and imagine what that success looks like before it takes place. Focus all your energy on the outcomes being real before they are imagining the success over and over again. Place your intentions on living your purpose and never ever give up. You can do it!

Let me know what you think.

Until next week, remember the only boxes that exist are the ones you create yourself.

Breaking Out-of-Your-Box

Wednesday, September 24th, 2008

More and more of us are being defined by the limiting parameters we set for ourselves, what is commonly know as “a box.” Our challenge as humans is to figure our how to “break-out-of-the-box” that supports creating the limitations in our lives, the box that holds us back as individuals, communities, and countries.

Breaking-out-of-the-box is about stretching your limits and facing those things that hold you back.

Our patterns of judgment–fear, not being good enough, and control–are only a few of the pieces that make up the box we create around ourselves.

If we sit back for a few seconds and think about the idea of a box, we might see that some of the greatest discoveries in history have been uncovered by individuals willing to take a risk and think outside-of-the-box.

To break-out-of-the-box we need to be open to change, to be willing to look at the boxes that we create for ourselves, and then be willing to face them head on. Once we face them we need to take action to move out-of-the box, which means doing what we have not wanted to do in the past.

Everyday is an opportunity to use your creativity, imagination, teamwork, positivity, logic, and passion which, when engaged, will enable you to increase your ability to live a life with more purpose and meaning.

Reclaiming your childhood vision is one of the best ways to start breaking out-of-the-box. In so many cases we have forgotten how to play, imagine, and even worse we have forgotten how to be ourselves.

Thinking with childlike vision is hard work and takes courage. In many cases it means you may have to sacrifice long held beliefs, paradigms, to gain new perspective.

Take the risk to step out on a limb and to be different than others and to challenge your thinking and your beliefs. This will enable you to “break-out-of-your-brainwashed box” into “out-of-the-box-thinking!”

Breaking-out-of-the-box takes practice, patience, constant attention, and a deep desire to be the best you can be. You can do it!

Let me know what you think.

Until next week, remember the only boxes that exist are the ones you create yourself.