How to think outside the box and open your mind in 3 simple steps

Research shows us that children are far more creative and open in their thinking than adults, children as young as 5 have a ‘genius’ level of creativity and sadly this deteriorates as they get older.

Let’s look at an example, how many uses do you think a paperclip has?

Most people would think of around 10 to 15 uses, however Sir Ken Robinson an expert in education showed that there are around 200 uses for a paperclip.

A longitudinal study of Kindergarten children measured 98% of children at the genius level of divergent or creative thinking. Five years later when the children were aged 8 to 10 years those genius levels had dropped to 50%. After another 5 years the level had dropped further.

Here’s how to open that box and be aware of when you are limiting your thinking.

We have neurological filters that help us to make sense of our world and stop us from going into overwhelm. One of those filters is called the generalisation filter.

An example of the generalisation filter serving us well comes from my personal experience of hiring a car. I was due to speak at a corporate conference in New Zealand and the organiser sent me an email to say that she’d booked my flights and hired me a car so I could travel to the venue. This car she’d hired was a Hyundai and I’ve never driven this type of car before, yet my generalisation filter kicked in nicely for me.

If my generalisation filter hadn’t done that, I would probably have downloaded the driver’s manual for the Hyundai or watched some YouTube videos to understand how to drive this car. All that actually happened was I picked up the car from the airport, programmed the venue details into Google Maps on my phone and off I drove.

We use our generalisation filter all the time to make sense of our world. In the case of this example, it was useful as I could hop into a different make of car to that which I was used to driving and off I went.

Basically, our generalisation filter allows us to say this looks like that, and so we need to respond in that way. It allows us to compare anything out there that may be new to us and generalise it using an experience we’ve already had. On the whole, it allows us to navigate our world a lot more easily.

The downside of a generalisation filter is that it can limit our learning. Have you ever been researching how to do something online or been on a course and compared what you’re reading or hearing to something else you have done before?

That’s your generalisation filter telling you that you already know how to do it. Your mind can become closed to learning.

Just being aware of this can be a huge help, ask yourself this question when you notice you think to yourself;

‘Oh I know about this, it’s like ( fill in the blank).’

Instead ask this question:

“What can I learn from this that I didn’t know before?”

This will cultivate a curious mindset, open your mind and send all the boxes in your mind packing.

For further insights into Your Life Live It courses specialising in Neural Coding and to discover Amanda Foo-Ryland's enriching collection of books, delve deeper by clicking here: https://yourlifeliveit.com/?