It’s ubiquitous:  “Think outside the box“!  A command to be innovative and daring.

Hard to think “outside the box” when you don’t even know where/what the box is.

And there’s always:  there is no box (or door, or key – Zen), it is a construct of your imagination.

I agree with the imagination thing, and I woke this morning with a great way to define the box in an easily identifiable way.

My own conjecture about “boxes” is usually around the pond outside my office window [this particular post links to a bunch of pond posts in addition to being about the pond].  The pond where I am at this moment watching a hawk watch that pond hoping for a fish or a frog.  She’s quite beautiful and I do wish she had food other than this but I guess on a cold February day you take what you can get.  And frogs are all sleeping.  Hopefully the fish are hiding in the leaves.  But I digress.

10 Ways to find the box so you can think outside of it:

1.  Listen to what you say out loud to other people
2. When you hear “I can’t”, “I don’t”, “I would never”, pause.
3. Take note of what follows those words.  What follows is a story.
4. That story is the outline of your box.
5. Write it all down – do not think.  Write down exactly what you were going to say.
6. Read what you wrote.
7. Choose to keep or discard all or parts of the story.
8. Discard parts = enlarge your box.
9. Discard all = there is not box.
10. Write a new story:  what does your world look like without this story?

You’re welcome.