Many of us know that when facing a difficult situation or a problem that the hardest and most important step is to take action. It is okay to feel unhappy when something does not go as planned. We are all human. We had a vision of an outcome and it did not go as we expected, it happens.
It is crucial to not sit in our feelings forever but to think about what we can control and what we cannot. We cannot control the outcome of a situation, but we can control ourselves and our efforts in any given situation. You must remember that if you do not succeed at first, then learn from it, try again, but you must never give up! And when you try again, use a different path or try another way to get to your goal. Now, the question is, what if we cannot achieve our goal and we have tried all the different ways that we know of? Surprisingly enough the answer is within the question.
Often when we try something repeatedly and do not succeed, we tend to think that we simply cannot do it, we just give up. We give up not because we did not try but because we think we are simply incapable or afraid of reaching the goal. We tried different approaches and still did not reach the goal. Maybe we were not ready for the goal or the goal was unrealistic. Or, maybe, we are missing something and what we need is to think outside of the box.
Thinking outside of the box means to think differently, unconventionally, or from a new perspective to novel or creative thinking, in other words, look for solutions where you did not look before. It is tricky but not impossible to think outside of the box and the keyword is “outside”. When we think of solutions we think based on what we know and think that could work and be right. However, we are still dealing with the same outcome as we cannot think of something that we do not know. For example, try to think of a new color? Can you? We simply cannot do it because we do not know it.
Sharing the problem or situation with others gives us the opportunity to learn. To learn and regroup with ideas that we might not have thought about before. This process, indeed, is thinking outside of the box as we are opening our minds to different possibilities and points of view, we are thinking outside of our own minds.
The sharing of ideas and situations does not necessarily need to be done after a task or a plan has failed. Even though we do not know the outcome until we try it, we can find the best outcome through prior planning and collaboration. Learning from others can expedite the process of finding the correct solution or intended outcome. It is extremely beneficial to be open to different opinions and to take in those opinions, analyze them, and formulate your own opinions from them. When we have an open mind we can take in many points of view but we do not need to take in all points of view, just enough of them to reassure us that the intended idea was correct or that it was incorrect.
In conclusion, do not close your mind off to other possibilities. It is good to have a plan and our own thoughts but to also make sure we are making the best decision at the moment. We have to get out of the comfort zone and find opportunities in different approaches so that we can obtain the desired result. Searching for the answer as many times is as necessary and in as many places as necessary because the answer to a question, or the path necessary to obtain a goal, is more often than not where we least expect it.
Jesus Vicente
jesus@phoenixacoaching.com
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