Outside the box vs inside the box

Photo by Erda Estremera on Unsplash

“There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in” - Leonard Cohen

Sometimes all it takes is a crack in the facade to open your eyes to what's possible.

Before Galileos work, before we knew about the scale and wonder of the cosmos, there was a common belief that the tiny lights in the sky were just pinpricks in some mysterious black fabric. Those dots let through the light from the heavens. Somewhere out there, it was thought, there was a spiritual world of infinite light that was just beyond what we could see. Technically we could see it, but only in specks.

This idea brings to mind the phrase “think outside the box”. This is well worn, and is a really helpful analogy to help people get outside of their normal modes of thinking. “What lies beyond?”, it begs. Yet it doesn’t really go far enough. If anything it’s a signal that something needs to be done about the current mindset, be it group or individual.

As a coach, oftentimes I find the most powerful way of helping those I serve to “see beyond” is to pose a powerful question, such as “If you changed your belief about this, what would be possible?” or “What’s the benefit of this problem?”, or even “Whats the hard part for you?”. When asked with care, such questions can poke a pinprick in that “boxed” thinking, one that allows fresh thoughts and possibilities to be envisaged. It gives access to new fields of thought. Good questions give pause, and start down the path to greater understandings, to new places that we can go together.

Part of my job is to find, or even create, those cracks, these pinpoints of possibility. They are almost impossible to achieve alone, and are often the turning points to lasting change. Once seen, they can’t be unseen.

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