Thinking outside the box is the most powerful thing in the world. But, how many people get out of their self-imposed walls in life? Not too many, and with the billions all over the place, too few get out of that box. For anyone willing to read or listen, I am ready to spill those beans on how to knock down those walls and be imaginative. So, here is a little advice to start off with: Stop caring what others think and start thinking genuinely for yourself.
Now, I did not say do not take advice if it is not good, but to get out of “the box”, you must be genuinely selective, realistically creative, and honest with yourself to the core. The best lives follow a self-made pattern anyway, right down to trusting intuition mostly over the advice of others “who know better” and being genuinely selective about taking any advice. Indeed creative and synthetic imagination (in that order) is the driver of life. Creative imagination because there is a better way to do things than the established way waiting within reality waiting to be discovered, and synthetic imagination in that more can be done with what already exists when we look a little beyond it in productive and creative ways.
When I think of creativity and imagination, the first thing I think of is the word “different”, not the word “better”. Because, “better” is a value judgement that says hey this is better than this and there is not any better way to do it, that is it, this is where it ends. The word “different” can open up possibilities instead of ending them with value judgements. “This is better than that” makes false assumptions about reality, “we can do this differently” opens up more possibilities really. Different is the open road that leads to new and better places, better is a dead end. So, that is where creativity really starts, with that distinction. Creativity in those senses is the ultimate “gray area” in realistic thinking, better makes “black and white” absolute value judgements like “this is better than that”, when it stifles creativity or betterment, that is unrealistic thinking and action, really.
So, start thinking about reality in different ways, not so much better ways, because it is through that difference that reality genuinely improves. For example, I remember when my Dad used to take his own car engine apart twice and putting it back together before starting it after he fixed it to see how he could improve its functioning with his knowledge of how to fix a car, and he actually succeeded at getting it to run better, that is an example of productively different thinking. Buying a “better” new car is not always the answer, is it? Sure, this end example is a basic example of how creativity works in reality. But, it shows what I mean by creativity is “different”, never “better”. New ways of looking at reality are the differences that makes things better anyway.
