I don’t know if I’ve always been a big thinker or if it just hit me later in life. I’ve been called a dreamer before, and I think that’s about right. I like to imagine all the possibilities this life has to offer, and I tend to overlook the obstacles standing in my way of achieving what I want. I guess we’ve all been programmed to believe there is a certain way of going about things in life. For me, it was to go to church, go to school, and get a job. Those were the prominent points of life I was supposed to partake in. I should say that I accomplished all three areas to a degree in my life, and now I’m on to whatever’s next.
That’s where I’m trying to stay, thinking outside the box, for as long as I can. I’ve been thinking outside of the box for at least the last decade, but to my own fault, there was little follow-through on my part. I made excuses and got distracted, but eventually reality forced me to rely on the ability to think bigger than what was ever told to me was possible. I like thinking outside the box because there are no limitations.
The thing is, society in general tells the mass public how to live their lives, and some people accept that. (No judgment cast upon them.) It’s just for innovators, inventors, comedians, artists, writers, and the like; the box is sometimes too small. Sometimes people have simply outgrown the box, and it’s less uncomfortable to start thinking outside the box than to stay there and suffocate. Then there are the people who are thinking inside the box, but the box has holes in it, so they get a glimpse of the possibilities waiting for them outside of it.
Let’s be honest, thinking outside the box can be scary, especially when you put actions into those thoughts. And I can say from experience, thinking outside the box can be a lonely task and an uphill battle. But if people didn’t think outside the box in the past, there would be no modernized society. We wouldn’t have computers, or the internet, or video games, or televisions…the list goes on and on. Maybe if thinking outside the box is too overwhelming at first, just start off with a bigger box.
I don’t expect to make that big of an impact on the world; I don’t really think about it. For me, it simply comes down to doing something I love and dedicating my time, energy, and skill sets to it. I don’t want to work a 9-to-5 because I’m scared to try something else. I don’t want to settle in life because I’m at a certain age. I want to see how far I can go in my life before my time is up. Yes, it’s uncomfortable putting myself out there to face the unknown. Yes, I sometimes will have doubts. And yes, I will have people who don’t support my vision. But when all is said and done, I get one life, why spend it in a box?