Focus and the Proverbial Box

A couple of months ago, I started with a new practice.?

Aligned with the evidence that it gave me after giving it a probation period, it was time to put it into a full-time habitual contract. As easy as it may sound, the facts showed it was more complicated in reality. It requires focus, attention, blocking off time, and assuring I had the right tools to become better at it.

Less focus.

Taking a break and letting my mind wander off. Spending more time being a bit "bored".

It came after I realised that I sought out online channels to gain inspiration for whatever I wanted to pen down. Goal setting, getting a bit more clarity on challenges and obstacles and how to overcome them. The internet is a treasure trove of information, and it becomes an overload of inspiration.

We all know the term "think outside the box".

It gives too many entrepreneurs an artificial horizon to put their focus on. The concept does not need any further explanation. The concept of what one wants to achieve is cemented yet treading outside the boundaries of the common is what entices entrepreneurs to start thinking outside of the boundaries of what’s seen as the established principles.

However, we always have that same focal point - the box.

You can stop and stay in the box and paint it all in your favourite colours, or hop out of it and imagine the box seen from a 3rd person's perspective. Too much focus on the latter concept is derived from seeing how competitors are doing something, analysing it, researching a bit more, and designing your vision, mission and core values that the market may need.

Yet, your proverbial north is and remains the box. We are limiting our horizon to that cardboard package. We still keep it in our peripheral view.

I decreased my time searching for other professionals in my field of play through social media. The chances that I would be overloaded with information useful to my directions are massive. Too large for words to describe. The box is still there, but more and more, I take a step back and turn around a new corner so I no longer see the box.

By getting unfocused, I have allowed my mind to wander off in directions I would not be able to find more clarity. I walk around more often, take a longer time to enjoy the warmth and comfort of my bathroom (be it on the loo or under the shower), or simply make time to cut away all distractions connected to what I perceive as my professional box.

Thinking outside the box still contains that focus element. From the corner of our eyes, the contours remain etched in our retinas. Brains tend not to work when overloading it with images, mantras, and how your friends from school indulge in a well-laid-out table with food covering all corners.

I have gained more inspiration, obtained more results and more clarity on the what, where and how by throwing the box away and starting to think. And the best way to do this is to permit yourself to be a bit more bored.?

The stuff I came up with by allowing myself to let my top chamber do its magic - and what it is designed to do best - is mind-boggling.

Step more often out of the arena, hide that box more often and give yourself permission to disconnect from browsing through your Facebook feed, and decrease your mental fatigue.

I don't know where I'm going from here, but I promise it won't be boring. | David Bowie