{"id":221,"date":"2013-10-30T06:07:33","date_gmt":"2013-10-30T11:07:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/iip-group.com\/hectic-dad\/?p=221"},"modified":"2015-06-17T09:39:20","modified_gmt":"2015-06-17T14:39:20","slug":"think-inside-the-box","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/think-inside-the-box\/","title":{"rendered":"Think inside the box"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Box\"You read the title right. It\u2019s another of my contrarian approaches to life. Pretty much every week, you\u2019ll hear someone extolling the virtues of thinking outside the box. The idea is to think outside your normal way of thinking, taking a risk, if you will. I even extolled the virtues of different thinking in my post Revolutionary Thinking<\/a> just over a week ago.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t worry, I\u2019m not turning my back on the idea of thinking outside the box. But as in so many other areas of my life, I can see both sides of the coin. Maybe it\u2019s something that I learned at an early age. Maybe it\u2019s ingrained in my genes. I don\u2019t really know where it comes from, but I can see both sides of an argument so often that it does make me wonder when other people can\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Since I\u2019m assuming you\u2019re familiar with the concept of thinking outside the box, I\u2019m not going to talk about what that means. But I\u2019m pretty sure most of you won\u2019t really have considered thinking inside the box.<\/p>\n

What do I mean by thinking inside the box?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

I mean thinking and acting within the constraints that exist. Using every bit of what you have, but not having to change vantage points. Not adding anything to your repertoire. Using the skills that you are already familiar with.<\/p>\n

\"legos\"You may have to take those skills or objects or whatever and put them together in new ways, but you don\u2019t have to do anything radical at all.<\/p>\n

The best example that I can think of comes from the movie Apollo 13<\/a>. In the real-life scenario \u00a0the movie is based on, the astronauts faced a situation where the carbon-dioxide scrubber in one part of the spacecraft could not use the filters from the other part of the ship. Without the carbon-dioxide scrubbers, the crew was going to be faced with unbreathable air.<\/p>\n

In one memorable scene, the flight engineers surround a table when a box of parts is tossed onto it. They are told “this is everything that the astronauts have”, and the engineers must come up with a way to create a new air filter.<\/p>\n

This is a perfect example of thinking inside the box. There is nothing else that can be used. The components for the solution are fixed. The only thing that can be applied besides the parts is the ingenuity that the team can apply to the problem at hand.<\/p>\n

Far too often, I find myself trying to \u201cthink outside the box\u201d to solve my problems. I\u2019m always looking for that one extra thing. That special way of looking at the problem. The additional item that I don\u2019t have that will give me the most elegant solution. And I find myself wasting time over wishing for, even looking for what\u2019s missing.<\/p>\n

And so many times, a perfectly good solution is well within my grasp with nothing more than the tools that I already have nearby, just waiting to be used.<\/p>\n

As I\u2019ve become more comfortable with the concept of thinking inside the box, I\u2019ve also had to become more comfortable with the realization that sometimes a job just needs to be done. Sure, there are better ways to solve some problems. Sometimes there are really elegant ways to fix them. But if I have to go too far outside the box, I often find myself spending more time, energy, and effort than what is really warranted by the problem. I\u2019m such a darned perfectionist that I always want to strive for the perfect solution. But sometimes that\u2019s just overkill.<\/p>\n

So the next time you run into a problem that you\u2019re really stuck on, try thinking inside the box. Look around at the tools, skills, and elements that you already have within your grasp and see if you can solve the problem inside the box. I know I\u2019ve been amazed at how much I\u2019ve been able to accomplish this way!<\/p>\n

\n
\"Modern<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You read the title right. It\u2019s another of my contrarian approaches to life. Pretty much every week, you\u2019ll hear someone extolling the virtues of thinking outside the box. The idea is to think outside your normal way of thinking, taking a risk, if you will. I even extolled the virtues of different thinking in my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2800,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[22,129,75],"class_list":["post-221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-productivity","tag-creativity","tag-perfectionist","tag-success"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nThink inside the box -<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/think-inside-the-box\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Think inside the box -\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"You read the title right. It\u2019s another of my contrarian approaches to life. Pretty much every week, you\u2019ll hear someone extolling the virtues of thinking outside the box. The idea is to think outside your normal way of thinking, taking a risk, if you will. I even extolled the virtues of different thinking in my […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/think-inside-the-box\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-10-30T11:07:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-06-17T14:39:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/lego-547800_1280.jpg?fit=1280%2C960&ssl=1\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"960\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"HecticDad\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"HecticDad\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/think-inside-the-box\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/think-inside-the-box\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"HecticDad\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/#\/schema\/person\/9363b57936e239608f889fc72fe9fc3b\"},\"headline\":\"Think inside the box\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-10-30T11:07:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-06-17T14:39:20+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/think-inside-the-box\/\"},\"wordCount\":686,\"commentCount\":1,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/think-inside-the-box\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/lego-547800_1280.jpg?fit=1280%2C960&ssl=1\",\"keywords\":[\"Creativity\",\"Perfectionist\",\"Success\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Productivity\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/think-inside-the-box\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/think-inside-the-box\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/think-inside-the-box\/\",\"name\":\"Think inside the box -\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/think-inside-the-box\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/think-inside-the-box\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/lego-547800_1280.jpg?fit=1280%2C960&ssl=1\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-10-30T11:07:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-06-17T14:39:20+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/#\/schema\/person\/9363b57936e239608f889fc72fe9fc3b\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/think-inside-the-box\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/think-inside-the-box\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/think-inside-the-box\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/lego-547800_1280.jpg?fit=1280%2C960&ssl=1\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/lego-547800_1280.jpg?fit=1280%2C960&ssl=1\",\"width\":1280,\"height\":960},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/think-inside-the-box\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Think inside the box\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/\",\"name\":\"\",\"description\":\"It's a hectic life, but somebody has to blog about it.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/#\/schema\/person\/9363b57936e239608f889fc72fe9fc3b\",\"name\":\"HecticDad\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/451d329704a0194a98f84b0d783a6073fdac032fe1397b2dd17d56208274b0ab?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/451d329704a0194a98f84b0d783a6073fdac032fe1397b2dd17d56208274b0ab?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"HecticDad\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/author\/hecticdad\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Think inside the box -","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/think-inside-the-box\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Think inside the box -","og_description":"You read the title right. It\u2019s another of my contrarian approaches to life. Pretty much every week, you\u2019ll hear someone extolling the virtues of thinking outside the box. The idea is to think outside your normal way of thinking, taking a risk, if you will. I even extolled the virtues of different thinking in my […]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/think-inside-the-box\/","article_published_time":"2013-10-30T11:07:33+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-06-17T14:39:20+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1280,"height":960,"url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/lego-547800_1280.jpg?fit=1280%2C960&ssl=1","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"HecticDad","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"HecticDad","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/think-inside-the-box\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/think-inside-the-box\/"},"author":{"name":"HecticDad","@id":"https:\/\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/#\/schema\/person\/9363b57936e239608f889fc72fe9fc3b"},"headline":"Think inside the box","datePublished":"2013-10-30T11:07:33+00:00","dateModified":"2015-06-17T14:39:20+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/think-inside-the-box\/"},"wordCount":686,"commentCount":1,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/think-inside-the-box\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/lego-547800_1280.jpg?fit=1280%2C960&ssl=1","keywords":["Creativity","Perfectionist","Success"],"articleSection":["Productivity"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/think-inside-the-box\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/think-inside-the-box\/","url":"https:\/\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/think-inside-the-box\/","name":"Think inside the box -","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/think-inside-the-box\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/think-inside-the-box\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/lego-547800_1280.jpg?fit=1280%2C960&ssl=1","datePublished":"2013-10-30T11:07:33+00:00","dateModified":"2015-06-17T14:39:20+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/#\/schema\/person\/9363b57936e239608f889fc72fe9fc3b"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/think-inside-the-box\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/think-inside-the-box\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/think-inside-the-box\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/lego-547800_1280.jpg?fit=1280%2C960&ssl=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/lego-547800_1280.jpg?fit=1280%2C960&ssl=1","width":1280,"height":960},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/think-inside-the-box\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Think inside the box"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/","name":"","description":"It's a hectic life, but somebody has to blog about it.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/#\/schema\/person\/9363b57936e239608f889fc72fe9fc3b","name":"HecticDad","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/451d329704a0194a98f84b0d783a6073fdac032fe1397b2dd17d56208274b0ab?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/451d329704a0194a98f84b0d783a6073fdac032fe1397b2dd17d56208274b0ab?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"HecticDad"},"url":"https:\/\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/author\/hecticdad\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/lego-547800_1280.jpg?fit=1280%2C960&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5mM9z-3z","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2801,"href":"https:\/\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221\/revisions\/2801"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}