Connect the Dots
If you’ve seen this before, that’s okay. Perhaps you will find what I have to say about it interesting anyway.
You either know the solution or you don’t.
If you know the solution, then you either figured it out yourself or you were shown, but either way there was a moment when you truly understood the meaning of “thinking outside the box.”
Here are a few interesting things in the process of working out the solution. Whether or however you work it out is immaterial at this point. What’s really interesting is how these points reflect Life.
▪ Sometimes, we just don’t get the rules.
“How about this?” “No, you can’t do that.” “Oh… yeah.”
Life is a puzzle. Life is a game. It has rules. Learn the rules and understand them.
▪ Sometimes, we get frustrated, then impatient.
“It’s just not possible!!! It’s a trick!!!”
If you can’t solve it, be patient. Chances are, there is a solution.
▪ Sometimes, we want to hide our frustration and mask it with our pride.
“I haven’t got time for this. I have far more important things to do.” “I gave up ‘Join the dots’ when I was a kid. Let me get back to my Rocket Science!”
If it’s not working for you, that doesn’t mean you’re above it or it’s above you. Greater and lesser people than you are mastering it.
▪ Sometimes, when presented with a set of rules, we unwittingly add our own.
“Well of course you can’t do that! It says so right… um… here?”
Don’t impose your own rules. We often overcomplicate things when simplicity is the key.
▪ Sometimes, we have to think outside the box.
“Wait a minute… Nobody said I couldn’t do this…”
We naturally tend to define things according to our experiences and expectations. Be prepared to find that things don’t always have to fit our current understanding. We make our own box. Think outside of it.
▪ Once we see the solution, we’ll never unsee it, and its shape may well completely dominate the problem.
“This is what it really looks like. So where’s the problem?”
Challenges are not there to hurt us. They are there to help us expand our thinking. A solved problem is no longer a problem, but a means to seeing a solution.