The Box Sucks

A couple of weeks ago I was telling a friend that I like be different. I mentioned to be different you have to think differently and the current cliché is to “think outside the box”. He asked me how he can better think outside the box.

Following are some of the ways I “think outside the box”.

First, I always like to be contrarian like someone saying something has to be a certain way (especially when they do not know why). I believe there is always a solution to a problem and there are always other options and better ways, no matter the situation.

I also believe that I do not need to come up with the answer by myself. This leads me to read about people that think different and have accomplished things I am trying to achieve. One of the books I recommend in line with this topic is Seth Godin’s Linchpin.

The next thing I do is to have a ton of ideas. When I have an idea I note it in my smart phone. Then later I review the ideas. I put the ideas, I want to take action on, in my calendar. I put the other ideas in a spreadsheet. I keep all of my ideas in one place that I can trust. This allows me to free my mind from the task of remembering and use it for creating ideas.

Our minds are horrible for remembering but great at creating.

Even though I have a ton of ideas I do not take action on most of them (many of them are bad). This is okay; the way to have good ideas is to have a lot of ideas and this includes bad ideas. I am an optimist so I think all of my ideas are golden, but I always bounce my ideas off others just in case I am being too optimistic.

I am always thinking of better ways to do things, I am always asking how can this be done better or why do we do this a certain way. Especially when I think something is done in a stupid way.

As I said before I am always reading and part of this reading is for personal development. Just like I question the things around me I question how I can do things better. I read about personal development because I know there are people out there that do things better than I can.

Finally, if there is a problem I brainstorm. I will sit down and write out a list of ideas to solve the problem and include every idea (good and bad). Once I brainstorm my ideas I then get ideas from friends.

This is how I am different. Hopefully you can steal some of these ideas.