Think but think out of the box

Thinking outside the box is among the most used phrases around the world which means to think creatively, freely, and off the beaten path. It is about dispensing with constraints and approaching problems in new and innovative ways. Very often people are told to think outside the box but nobody tells the exact way of doing it.

Outside the box thinking starts well before you are boxed in. It means that before you confront a situation and start forcing it into a familiar box that you know how to deal with it. Following are the ways with which you can beef up your out-of-the-box-thinking skills. These will help you to broaden up your thinking and develop the talents to handle different kinds of situations.

1. Change perspective by slipping into another role:

For changing your perspective, you have to slip into the role of another person. But it does not mean that you necessarily have to slip into the role of the people around you because they basically possess the same amount of knowledge as you. You have to view the world from the eyes of a person who thinks that the world is shaped like a disc and is completely unaware of the modern society. You will then be free to focus on your environment and discover the things that you have been unable to notice before. You will come across a lot of things that you may have seen lying around you before but you never tried to understand their purpose of being present.

2. Set yourself a challenging task:

This is the kind of exercise that will push you to use your creativity for addressing a problem in a completely different manner. Rather than coming up with solution of a problem in an old manner, write down a challenging task on a piece of paper. Then write down precisely how you intent to accomplish the task without by not following any given instructions. Find as many solutions as you can and then choose the best one.

3. Step into a completely different world:

Stepping in another world is not just by traveling around the world, it can be done without changing any of that. It just requires you to change your environment that is a bit different than what you usually reside in and it can be done for a short period of time. The best place is to find a new hobby that can distract you from the outer world, meet new people, acquire knowledge on topics that interests you, study a completely different field, learn a new language, or take classes on different subjects.

4. Get help from children:

When you want to tackle a problem in a completely different way, ask a child to help you out. It is because children often speak with ignorance of convention that becomes helpful in many ways. Kids often think outside the box because they have not heard of the fixed possible solutions. Therefore, they come up with ways that are completely different than what you think.

5. Draw pictures:

When you draw a problem, it gives a certain kind of visualization. It helps your brain to engage all modes of thinking that are not used normally. This is the best way to give yourself a creative boost and break your logical left-brain’s hold on problems.

Via: Planet of Success