Boxes

"Who would condescend to strike down the mere things that he does not fear? Who would debase himself to be merely brave, like any common prizefighter? Who would stoop to be fearless--like a tree? Fight the thing that you fear. You remember the old tale of the English clergyman who gave the last rites to the brigand of Sicily, and how on his death-bed the great robber said, 'I can give you no money, but I can give you advice for a lifetime: your thumb on the blade, and strike upwards.' So I say to you, strike upwards, if you strike at the stars." -- G.K. Chesterton (The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare)

It takes a lot to break out of a box. The material of the box doesn't really matter. It can be made of cardboard, emotion, thought, concrete, first impressions, or what we were taught when we were children. Most people, when given the task of "getting out of a closed box" approach it thinking that they have to use force. That idea is its own box, honestly. Thinking that there's only one solution, one way, one step, or one method.

The answer to the question "How do you get out of a box?" is radically simple, yet we're usually so caught up in being inside the box that we don't consider it.

To get out of a box, you open it.

That's it. That's the solution.

Instead of sitting there saying, "How do I open this box?", just go open it. It might take some doing, but it'll happen. It always does.