The Importance of Thinking Outside the Box
Posted December 2, 2010 in Inspiration, Lifestyle
Rules. Standards. Doing things the way they’ve ‘always been done.’ There are good reasons to rely on and follow these things, but we often forget that they all originated somewhere. There is an inherent danger for a freelancer who only ever strives to maintain the status quo and stick to proven methods, and this choice can not only impact the freelancer’s future but also has the potential to affect countless others.
In this post, we will look at how stepping outside of the norm and doing things differently could be the best possible approach for modern day freelancers.
Who Built the Box?
The fact is that no matter what standards we typically adhere to, they all had to originate somewhere and relevant society had to accept and crown them as the popular or proven. Someone somewhere sometime built the box that we now find ourselves inside. I have read so many articles, books and blog posts telling us how we should do things, which rules to follow and what steps we must take in order to succeed in a variety of fields, and I have even written some myself. Yet, doesn’t it stand to reason that if no one ever questioned, contributed to or resisted the popular or proven method of operation we would not have the evolution of so many things that we have today?
Some might argue that technology and other features of our modern lives should be considered detrimental to society rather than progressive evolution. Still, one cannot help but realize that most growth is brought on by challenge, adversity and change. If all we ever did was allow a chosen few to dictate the way things should be, we quite possibly would still be living in the Stone Age.
Rules are made to be broken. Boxes are confining. The clinical definition of death is something that does not change or grow.
The bottom line is, in my opinion, that every single human being is constantly faced with the choice of accepting the boundaries of the box we find ourselves in or stepping outside it and contributing to the creation of a living, breathing, ever-expanding organism that we can function productively within and beyond.
Is Your Brain Being Boxed In?
Take a look at your surroundings. What are you doing in your life, your family and/or your work that is uniquely yours? What rules have you consciously or unconsciously adopted as your own, nailing them to your life’s wall and making sure to religiously follow without question or individual thought? Is your unique and personal potential being completely fulfilled within the various contexts of your life? Are you moving toward your dreams for your life, or just making a living and managing to stay afloat?
If you are able to answer these questions with the confidence of one who is living a life of challenges, growth, and questioning the status quo, then I congratulate you! However, if you cannot remember the last time you stepped outside of your safety zone, why not rattle your own cage a little bit and begin working toward bending the bars to set yourself free?
You Have a Responsibility to Break the Box
Without getting too philosophical, I want to suggest to you that you have a unique contribution to society that only you can give. Should you choose to settle into the shoes of a follower and fail to find your own personal thread in the fabric of humankind that is born from the fulfilling of this responsibility, not only will you miss out on the life that could have been, but everyone else who would have been impacted by your contribution will never feel the tremor that is yours.
For me, that thought alone is enough motivation.
What if the long list of explorers, leaders, inventors, scientists, and more who have each stepped outside the box to bring their own unique influence and ideas never did? What if all of history had never been touched by the bravery and radical choices of those who opened up their minds to the possibilities of new and different things? The concept is mind-boggling.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking that your contribution, your uniqueness, is not important enough to pursue, either. For every historic icon, for every hero, for every name that rings of greatness, there are hundreds of thousands who made their own contribution that, while it significantly impacted our society, we will never know by name.
Fame is not the point. The point is to live your own life to its fullest potential and settle for nothing less. If everyone did this, instead of just a small percentage of humanity, I believe our world and our society would be radically different. You and I cannot look to others to change our lives and the world around us. We must look within ourselves and determine to be the best possible you and I we can be.
Box Breaking for Freelancers
So whether you are a freelance writer, artist, designer, developer, entrepreneur or any other occupation, I challenge you today to spend some time in self-evaluation. What boxes are you living in without ever questioning? What boxes have you let others build for and around you? What boxes have you never considered thinking outside of?
Challenge yourself and those around you to think outside the box. It’s important. Possibly more important than any of us will ever know.
Your Turn
Do you feel that you have broken free from some of the rules that box you in? Do you agree or disagree with the philosophy presented here? Share your stories and thoughts in the comments.
Image by CRASHCandy
Related posts:
- Maximizing Results As A Way Of Thinking
- The Importance of Doing What You Say
- The Importance Of Analyzing Your Statistics
About the author: Brian is a freelance web & graphic designer with over 15 years' experience. His business bkmacdaddy designs specializes in completely custom WordPress, Joomla, Magento & CSS/XHTML websites as well as logo design, brand identity, social media management and more. Brian is a father of 3 and madly in love with his wife of many years.
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32 Comments
Bastian Heist
December 2nd, 2010 at 10:05 amSo true. IMHO Design itself is seeing the unusual in things of everyday life and getting inspired by them. Many works of art testify that, just check out coolvibe.com.
Caitlin Kelly
December 2nd, 2010 at 10:30 amNice post.
I suspect, certainly in a lousy economy, many of us are just doing our best to hang on financially. It doesn’t feel like a great time to take risks and taking risks is…risky! You can lose clients. But your point is a good one. Who else is going to re-define us but ourselves? Lots to think about.
Jeremy Meyers
December 2nd, 2010 at 11:07 amIf we all think outside the box, isn’t that just another box?
Brian McDaniel
December 2nd, 2010 at 11:14 am@Caitlin: Good point, but I truly believe taking risks (and even failing) is key to growing and becoming everything you can be. For me, living an adventurous life full of ups and downs is much more fulfilling than staying steady and potentially bored. I say go for it!
@Jeremy: That’s funny. :) I think that would be an extremely large box in order for it to contain all of our unique characteristics, ideas, personalities and approaches. The fact is, if everyone is moving outside of the box and contributing their own uniqueness, not one of us would be the same. So I guess my short answer to you is, in my opinion, “No.”
behzad
December 2nd, 2010 at 11:25 amWhat we forget, is that we are not designers, coders or copywriters, we are business owners and we need to market our business. Successful freelancers know how to market themselves outside of the box. We get too involved with our profession and forget marketing and sales.
Jeremy Hixon
December 2nd, 2010 at 11:44 amI like to take things away from ‘the norm’ any chance I get. Lately, I’ve been working on a site-redesign for a client that is much needed and long since due. Any chance I’ve had to work in some HTML5 and CSS3 I’ve taken it. I figure, it’s good for me to get used to it while at the same time giving those users with modern browsers a better looking, faster experience.
There’s no way we can box ourselves in if we’re constantly trying new things.
Bjarte Edvardsen
December 2nd, 2010 at 12:47 pmThank you for this inspiring post. I agree with your philosophy, it’s very easy to forget to break free from a box. In fact we might not even realize that we’re in one. And there’s probably more than one box too, there are so many areas of work that we’re most likely in a lot of boxes at a time. The result is that it can be a lot to investigate; a lot of boxes we should consider breaking free from. Another difficult part is that it’s harder to escape from a box the longer we have been trapped in there.
The best way to think out of the box for me is to observe and learn from other photographers who inspire me. And not only from the work itself, but from their way of working. When I’ve gotten used to new people for a period I’ll start hearing they’re voices inside my head while working, on how they would think when certain problems occurs or what they probably would tell me if I asked them to comment what I’m working on.
Christina Wilkinson
December 2nd, 2010 at 1:33 pmI find it disturbing that some feel that thinking outside the box is disruptive and experimental to their process.
Because of this, I’m going to tell you one way I think outside the box and keep clients.
Ever hear of the ‘show the client only 3′ rule? I have always disliked that rule. Large firms tend to do this because they feel that they know a client better than the client knows themself. This may be the case for very large clients, but what about small to mid-sized businesses and mom & pop businesses? These groups are sometimes difficult to research.
So don’t give a client 3 logo concepts, give them 6. The first three are what the client thinks they want and the other 3 are what you know would work for their direction based on research, the client and your knowledge in branding.
You’ll be surprised at how much your client feels like you’re really taking care of them.
BTW…..great article.
Christina Wilkinson
December 2nd, 2010 at 1:36 pmAlso probably not a great place to say this, but there’s a typo in the word “invoicing” in the top banner.
Jamie Wayne Guijarro
December 2nd, 2010 at 2:48 pmWhenever I think of the “box”, I refer to the mainstream or a popular trend of style if you may. Freelancers should always take advantage of their originality and their style instead of constraining themselves into the mainstream and copy the style of other original freelancers. Breaking free from the box keeps you healthy as a creative thinker.
Timothy Whalin
December 2nd, 2010 at 3:06 pmWow! Awesome article! Thank you very much for sharing. Wow. :) Will take a while to process.
Angela
December 2nd, 2010 at 3:27 pmI like this post. It really makes a person stop and think about the following question “What can we do differently to create more business for ourselves?” I also think that as people in a very creative industry we are already thinking outside the box, however we need to break the mold and make sure that our work has an individual flair to it. I like posts like this that leave the reader thinking about new ways to break into their chosen field. Its a good way to get ideas flowing through the brain. Thanks!
Claire Wagner
December 2nd, 2010 at 7:23 pmGreat motivation as we look forward to a new year. 2010 hasn’t been the easiest or most profitable but it has brought so much potential–which I can only capitalize on if I think outside the box! Thanks.
Stephanie
December 2nd, 2010 at 10:01 pmThis post reaffirmed my thoughts and decisions of starting a project that’ll make a difference to my community of freelancers, so I thank you for this Brian! Usually I’d listen and consider what others have to say or would suggest when it comes to certain things like freelancing and marketing my services, but lately I’ve been pulling myself out of my own safety zone and trying out new things in order to help my fellow freelancers whenever I can.
And I don’t regret it one bit. :)
TLC
December 3rd, 2010 at 12:01 amI think outside the box when I do things for myself and my clients that defy conventions. Sometimes I still make very simple HTML Web sites because that’s all my clients need. I don’t tell anyone to Facebook, Twitter or blog unless they have the time and resources to do it and it will benefit their business. It all depends on what people need and can afford.
I spent 6 years working for people who wanted me to stay on top of the latest Web trends — even though they had no intention of giving me any budget or staff to carry them out. I wasted an extraordinary amount of time surfing and reading, all so I could talk the talk and give them buzzwords. Ever since then, I have vowed not to follow the crowd simply because everyone else is doing it. Everyone’s needs are different. It’s my job to talk with clients, find out what they’re trying to communicate, and then guide them to the best possible ways to accomplish this with the budget they have.
angelee
December 3rd, 2010 at 3:47 amI remember one of our trainer’s before when we had a game just to keep us awake for the entire discussion. Out of 30 of us, as participants, only one guy figured it out. It was a boring game actually but the trainer tried to point us out how to “Think Outside The Box”.
The article may be stressing out a different description of the “Box” but somehow it is still related to what I think “Outside the Box” means seeing beyond things to make a difference.
.. and the admin here owes @Christina Wilkinson for seeing the typo.. haha!
paul
December 3rd, 2010 at 10:22 amGreat article Brian!
One of the best books I read this year was Hardboiled web design by Andy Clarke and he basically asks designers to “break out of the box” and just move forward with new techniques.
Don’t let old technologies hold you back.
Privileged Software Limited
December 3rd, 2010 at 1:31 pmGreat post, really good read :) thanks
Custom Logo Design
December 6th, 2010 at 2:05 am“you have a unique contribution to society that only you can give”
thats it…explore your self…evaluate your self on the constructs of self knowledge and self reverence …
be confident.if your box bounds you in the walls of fear and sense of low confidence…break it..just shatter it to show your will power..once you are out..you are the champ…..
Desiree Byrd
December 7th, 2010 at 11:37 amWell written, nice to read… BUT…..
This article didn’t help me in the least!
I have an impossible to please client. They’re telling me to ‘think outside the box’, but I never put design into a box in the first place.
You can’t completely break the rules of ‘Good’ Design, and have it NOT be in a Box of one way or another.
You can’t tell me to make a logo adhere to a specific look, and have it NOT be in a BOX!
I’m beyond frustrated, because I’m not understanding how something ISN’T in one box or another, because I am of the opinion there IS no original thought, and EVERYTHING is inspired by something else.
We aren’t designers anymore. We parrot. That’s what we do.
So we parrot what we think our clients want, and then they say “think outside the box” … No, what they REALLY want is for us to climb inside THEIR box. Only we don’t know WHERE or WHAT their box really looks like. Maybe its a burgundy box awash in a sea of ‘dark red’ boxes. Or a box of daises in a field of sunflowers.
We’re always just one step off aren’t we?
Symis Int'l
December 7th, 2010 at 4:26 pmThanks for sharing this blog, Really amazing and helpful.
David Brown
http://symis.com
morrel joel shilenge
January 25th, 2011 at 8:28 amIn the end….you end up going back to a Box, confined to Death. True Boxes confine thinking and living. brilliant article.
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