‘’ The distinctive feature that sets great people apart from the rest is their ability to conceive unconventional ideas and to make use of them.’’ – Elton Gomori

In this day and age we find ourselves in, to thrive, one must exhibit outstanding ideas, strategies and results. That can only be achievable if a candidate for greatness and dominion gets to the point when and where they think ‘outside the box’.

We all live in the box that is shaped by our beliefs, culture, past experiences and education. These things tend to put a fence around our mind. When you think inside the box, you are limited. You copy what already exist. If accepted viewpoints and ideas are never challenged, mankind would not progress. Humanity would stagnate. Cars, airplanes, skyscrapers, automated machines, internet and world’s leading innovations would not have been invented.

When our thoughts do not violate the laws and principles that we were taught and we feel safe and  when there is less risk in what we are doing, then that shows that we are thinking inside the box. Agreeing with fellow human beings and producing and dilivering exactly what have been done before or what is being presently done are sure signs of thinking inside the box. The danger of thinking inside the box is that it doesn’t birth solutions the world is yearning for and consequently that thinking does not at all produce champions.

CREATIVE THINKING

We often hit the walls of problems that can’t be solved by conventional thinking. Creative thinking helps us climb out of the box and find better solutions. Creative thinking is the ability to break out of the box of normal thinking and explore new ideas and options to attain breakthrough. Creative thinkers see what everyone has seen and think what nobody else has ever thought and do what nobody else has ever done.

Harvey Ardman expressed it well when he asserts that “Creativity is the ability to make something new. It overcomes routine, it awakens the mind, it fuels hope, it intensifies experience, it offers a new beginning, it widens the view, it stretches definitions, it surpasses traditions, it deepens meaning, it surprises, it refreshes life.” Ideally, creative thinkers are able to look at things in new, unorthodox ways and come up with solutions no one previously thought of. Creativity is what drives innovation and progress.

MENTAL BOX

Our mental box is framed by many factors that shape the way we think. We were all created with a mind without boundaries. These factors imprison our inner creativity.  Most successful people break these mental walls. These walls  have voices that echo and always try to choke and silence any new ideas. The more you try to break and jump over them the more they try to discourage you by telling you that it has never been done before. It can't work. Timing and place are wrong. You are too young or old for this challenge. No one from your clan has crossed that line. You lack the qualifications. You will become a laughing stock. Stop embarrassing yourself. Where will you get the resources?

The following factors from my observation make up the mental boxes of people of African descent: 

Upbringing

This is the first and foremost thing that shapes one's attitude, personality, mindset. What background one belongs to, their upbringing and education they get mould them into what they become. Many people grow up with their mind bound with shackles of their upbringing. You can change your location of residence but still controlled by your background. Our minds are conditioned by our upbringing to think, see and respond to life in a certain way. It creates a prescribed pattern or way of viewing things. We have a tendency to reject or dismiss without critical thinking anything that comes our way, not within the prescribed fashion that we are accustomed to. 

One classical example is that of Saul in the Bible who was sent by his father Kish to look for his lost donkeys. While in search for the donkeys he stumbled on prophet Samuel who broke the heavenly news that God had chosen him to become the king of Israel.  Saul looked at the biggest door to ever open to any man in the history of Israel through the spectacles of his upbringing. There was never a king before in Israel. He responded to the job offer of kingship not on the basis of his competence but from the position of family history. His response to Samuel was, "But am I not a Benjamite, from the smallest tribe of Israel, and is not my clan the least of all the clans of the tribe of Benjamin? Why do you say such a thing to me?” 1 Samuel 9:21.

Saul was looking at the window of opportunity using family spectacles. Family spectacles are blind to new trends and opportunities. They always try to make you fit in instead of stepping out of family beliefs and traditions. 

We are products of our upbringing. Children who experience frequent limits train themselves to think inside the box even when they grow up. However, the extent to which your creativity was nurtured as a child can have an impact on your creativity as an adult.

Environment

The environment we grow up in can limit or expand our own scope of thinking. The culture of an environment can be an enemy of creativity. Don’t let what you see around you become your pattern. Otherwise you will just end up settling within what you think is the norm. Those who think bigger and outside the box tend to distinguish themselves from the rest.  Our romantic life with my wife Portia dramatically improved the moment we met Pastor Simba and Glory Woloza. The level of our intimacy as a couple was enhanced by attending many marriages programs like boot camps, seminars, couples cafes and love summits which were organized by Strong Bonds Marriages.  I will never forget an incident that happened at Kamunhu Shopping Centre in the high density suburb of Mabvuku and Tafara where I grew up. It was on Saturday around sunset when Portia and I decided to go and buy a few groceries at the shopping centre. We were walking romantically, displaying our affection in the public holding each other’s hands. People began whistling, ululating and we stopped and looked around to see what had caught people’s attention. It suddenly dawned to us that people were staring, whistling and ululating at us with much amazement. We quickly released each other and left Gaza Strip between us to avoid continuing causing a stir. They were not used to see married people walking intimately in broad day light. I recall that we never walked there again holding hands. We could walk there like a brother and sister all the time.  Our romantic creativity was being killed by the environment whenever we were in that vicinity. Despite all the marriage enrichment programs that we had invested in, our environment found a way of limiting our love life. To be creative you must be bold and challenge your environment. 

Human beings tend to behave much like a tortoise. We poke our heads out nervously to ensure the environment is safe and comfortable before we fully emerge.

Cultivate an environment for success

If you own a business or you are a manager at your organization, you must learn to stimulate a creative environment in the workplace that rewards creativity and which does not punish mistakes. Creating a physical environment that puts people at ease and makes them feel relaxed and safe will get the creative juices properly flowing. All innovative companies create an environment that makes it easy to unlock creative energy. The use of a democratic leadership style were necessary is called for if a creativity friendly environment is to be fostered.

Your environment is also created by the type of people you hang around. I can’t stress this fact enough: you become who you are around. If you spend a lot of time with people consumed with meaningless things, you will get meaningless results. On the contrary, if you surround yourself with successful people, you will become like them if not better. Surrounding yourself with people and things that will turn you into a success is what you need, not negative environments. A very powerful thing I learned through mentorship is this: find someone who is 5 times more successful than where you want to be. This way they can easily guide you there from their own experience. If you want to make a million, you must find someone who made five million or far more.

Education

We spent years in school studying what other people have thought, discovered, developed and created. Materials we read has a huge influence on our thoughts and behavior. Education shapes and systematises our thinking. It makes us master processes and procedures of doing things. School system measures our intelligence by how we quickly master, understand and memorize other people's thoughts and discoveries and not by how creative we are. This stifles creativity as people stick to old ways of doing things. Anybody can execute a given set of procedures with training, but it takes creative thinking to initiate and create something for the first time. As children we are all born naturally creative, yet by the time we reach adulthood, our creativity has been ‘educated out of us’ by the barriers of school, society and corporate society. We must deny our upbringing, school and religion to wear away our most precious innate ability of creative thinking. After acquiring diplomas and degrees rarely do people shift and purse other high rewarding opportunities that are not related to their line of education even if it’s something that can be done without much learning. Education shrinks people’s world to the extent that they become blind to many opportunities within their reach.  True education must not imprison you but must broaden your horizons of opportunities. Our academic curriculum has been designed for us to be managers and not to be entrepreneurs. Schools prepare us to be job seekers and not job creators. This is the reason why most 'A' students work for 'C' students and the reason why the most educated are not the richest in the world. 

Fear of failure

Fear of failure is the quickest and silent killer of creative thinking than perhaps any other single thing. It prevents us from moving forward. It stops us from doing things. Fear causes us to disengage from the creative thinking gear. It is a disease that paralyses and incapacitates action. Those bound by fear will remain rooted in one spot. When you experience fear it’s a sign that are you embarking on uncharted terrains that give birth to novel ideas. Almost everyone feels nervous outside their comfort zone, the place where you feel most competent and secure. Doing something familiar is easy – you know what you’re doing and what to expect.

Failure is the unsung hero of the creative process. Every time you fail, you gain a valuable piece of information. What doesn’t work is sometimes even more important than what does. And mastering skills only happens through a process of trial and error. The reason why some people are so good in what they do is because they fail religiously. If we become courageous, we can break down the mental barriers caused by fear or what we may perceive as obstacles.

The tentacles that captivates us in the mental boxes can break open the moment we engage the mental gear of imagination as we employ creative thinking. We should think outside the box. The fact that we will be housed by a box like furniture called a coffin or casket only after our death means we have no business thinking inside the box right in the land of the living. Think outside the box, think big, think unique !