Beth's Ponderings
I’m sure you’ve
heard the expression “think outside the box,” and may have even been challenged
to do just that in a job or organizational setting, or maybe even in your
personal life.
How successful were
you in that endeavour, really?
While we can all
benefit from getting out of our various “ruts” - whatever form they may appear
in, getting “out of the box” isn’t beneficial to us at all. We’d be further ahead to crawl deeper into
the box.
A panorama view
takes our breath away at its majestic beauty, and knowing the big picture,
North Star, or “forest,” will help us to navigate, but to really see things
differently and move forward in creative ways we need to limit our view
dramatically.
Think about it, it
isn’t the forest that moves you as much as the tiny drop of dew glistening on
one individual little leaf on one tree. In
other words, it is the things right immediately in front of us, things that we
can touch, rather than what’s in our view, yet completely out of reach.
Artists and
photographers know that it isn’t what is OUTSIDE the frame that creates the
power of the picture...it is what is inside the frame. The frame provides a limit, or boundary, yet
at the same time it provides endless freedom as you can focus on whatever you
want within that frame, and what you choose to focus on will achieve importance.
The best writers,
speakers, and other creative types also apply this principle. They don’t tell you everything they know, or
want to share, they limit it down to one thought or theme, increasing its
overall impact.
The inventions that
have had the greatest impact on our lives have been items that dealt with
processes we use every day, and objects we hold in our hands.
In order to make
changes and bring something new to your organization, job, or life, you just
need to look at what is immediately around you and decide what one item, or
area, you want to focus on. By bringing
your focus down to the tangible and visible, instead of trying to create
something new out of the nebulous, you will be able to create something lasting,
memorable, and more than likely more applicable to your situation, than
anything you’ll find in the vast “outside.”
Beth
Read the complete issue of The Chautauqua here: https://sites.google.com/site/thechautauqua22/home/May%205%2C%202017%20Chautauqua2.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1
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