Out of the box there is nothing

Defining original thinking as ‘thinking out of the box’
is a misleading metaphor - and taking the term in its original Greek significance
metaphor is ‘caring a meaning’.
The meaning seems to be that my original thinking is outside of myself,
I have to put more attention out of me.
I have to pay attention to the environment, and not to myself.
The worth is not in me, but out of me.
What a sadness and a crumbled self esteem to be told:
“Shame. You can’t think out of the box…”

Well, out of the box there is nothing!
Ludwig Wittgenstein said that you think
to the very limit you can name – you have words for.
“The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.”
Therefor your originality lays on the inside of your.. box.

The ‘text’ lays on context! The more attention you pay to your inside context, the more connections, the more ‘text’, the more original thinking.
The matter of fact, the way brain functions is the perfect example for original thinking.
Heraclitus : „No man ever steps in the same river twice,
for it's not the same river and he's not the same man.”
There aren’t a same synaptic way in two brains!
The originality of thinking is innate.
The exploring of thinking is not.
As well as the attention to yourself.
And the minimum condition for attention is to be present within yourself.
Isn’t it to easy?!
Well, it is known the humble Einstein’s saying:
‘I didn’t think at many things, I think many times at the same thing.’

Let’s describe original thinking as.. ‘boring around’! (my friends in creative boutique know what I meant by that)
In the phrase above, the main word is not ‘boring’ but ‘around’.
Being around is being present,
paying attention to everything – to everything you could name.
And this is not at everybody’s ease. On the contrary.
We are used to focus on the past or on the future solutions –
because that solutions are not verifiable.
Being present is checking your results,
having feedback, seizing what could be a feed forward,
 being aware of ‘the next-level present’.

Given a question (read problem, opportunity) to be answered/solved is always an original thinking – i.e. different of the thinking that originated the problem.
(and, of course, the problem itself is an original thinking!)

Instead of “Think out of the box” I would go with
“Explore your box. Pay attention to you” Sometimes you need a coach for that!

Coaching IS about creativity – i.e. original thinking.
There is nothing new under the Sun
but* is good to find out what there is :)

Magda Bunea, coach
March, 2010

* I've searched with Google after this part of my phrase – and guess what! -
the way I end the phrase IT IS an.. original thinking!
So, please do quote me, but.. don’t forget Shakespeare :)
„If there be nothing new, but that which is
Hath been before, how are our brains beguiled,
Which, laboring for invention, bear amiss
The second burden of a former child.” Sonnet 59

Here you are some other endings of the famous phrase –
just for ‘boring around’ :)))
„There is is nothing new under the sun but there are lots of old things we don't know.” Ambroise Bierce/The Devil's Dictionary

„There is nothing new under the sun…but it could be orders of magnitudes bigger!” Adrian Douglas

“It may be true that there is is nothing new under the sun
but you are determined to find ways to express yourself and make your mark on the world.”
Quoted by Leonard J. Greenspoon from „The Glob and Mail”/Canada, in BAR, „The Bible in the News” Aprilie 2010

„There really may be is nothing new under the sun
but I know that we can have a lot of fun doing whatever it is all over again!”
From here: http://askcolleen.wordpress.com/

Aaaaaaand:
„Nothing new under the sun...but will be soon :) Education Blog on its way”
From twitter, just few HOURS ago
:)))