Step Out-Step Up

Step Up-Step Out

Daily we are each faced with the opportunities to make choices about our current and future state of life. The circumstances present themselves in different ways. Some may be urgent and some not.  Some may be important, some not. Some may yield great profit and others may set us on a path to make great returns later in life. It is therefore important for us to know which is which because the manner in which we approach any situation affects the outcome.

Stepping out means consciously determining to move outside the normal circle of thought, language, actions and step into an arena where you see things from a magnifying glass. Where you do not only see your life in today’s terms but also in impending metamorphosed state and you be prepared to work at it. Stepping out means you are employing tactics, actions and efforts and work twice as smart and twice as hard as your peers.  It is not a secret that great rewards cannot be and are not associated with regular thinking and ordinary efforts. So you can be in the same place as your peers, but you chose to think outside the moment in a way that sets u apart from them.

Look at your world around you and you will see many examples of people who have employed their minds far out and above what we call normal and we even go to the extent of saying “I never thought about that” and bla, bla, bla! We all are products of our thoughts and work employed "after the thought process".

The ten Virgins.

The story of the ten virgins in the bible illustrate this very well for me. When the girls heard the groom was coming to meet them in the few hours to come, they washed up, dressed up to their best (I believe) and took up their oil lamps to go with in the waiting area. I believe it was known that sometimes they have to wait in the dark night and had to provide for their own lighting.  Interestingly, the bible labels the virgins as five wise and the five not so wise. The wise virgins took extra oil and the not so wise took their lamps without extra oil. Since the waiting did not have a defined period, they ran out of oil in the night and darkness filled their waiting area. 

The girls did not think of the future. They thought about what was needed "now" and made no provision for the unknown or the latter life. Stepping out and up is to be  like the wise girls. You do not only think of your present, but you mitigate for the future known and unknown. The foolish girls resembled a thinking style that I believe is for the poor. They think not of anything but their hungry stomach. They do not think of growing food for more than their stomach or their cooking needs for today. Instead they think of who should be next donor for their next ambition in a way that yields no results for self sustenance or reproduction.

To step out of this low level of thinking and into a better productive life, you need to employ what is called “creative thinking”.

Creative Thinking

Creative thinkers have chosen to do the hardest and most paying work anyone can do: thinking.  Albert Einstein said; Thinking is hard work; that’s why so few people do it. And David Schwartz said “Where success is concerned, people are not measured in inches, or pounds, or college degrees, or family background: they are measured by the size of their thinking.” Now that should call for some thinking about yourself now.

 So here is what thinkers do on daily basis:

• They value ideas
• They explore options
• They embrace ambiguity
• They celebrate the “offbeat”. Meaning they celebrate what people call awkward. 
• They connect the unconnected. They harness the power of being able to take what others have left in despair,rejected and thought it can't bee done. They take everybody's rejected ideas and make them one big idea.
• They do not fear failure. They always jump in and and explore new territories.

Thinking outside the box challenges the thinker first, then those around them. A person who thinks outside the box tends to challenge the status quo. People of this nature are usually associated with more challenges in life and they embrace it as fun for them. Like Richard Branson, who amidst all his successes, he has embraced every challenge in his life as part of fun, and that made him great success in his business endeavours. In obstacles, he looked for the part that has fun, and stepped his game up almost all the times.

I can go on and on, but let me give you these little nuggets that I believe may be crucial for you going forward as you think outside the box and step up. 

1. As a person who wants step out, I want you to know that doing that will improve the quality of your life and those around you. it adds value to you and everything . John Maxwell describe it as “being able to see what everybody else has seen and think what nobody else has thought so that you can do what nobody else has done”. These people see the world through new eyes and develop solutions for problems that are known to them and the people they live with. 

2. Thinking outside the box draws people to you and your ideas. People and money are drawn to people who think outside the box. 

3. Thinking outside the box gives you options or the ability to look for options. Ernie Zelinski puts it this way “Creativity is the joy of not knowing it all. The joy of not knowing it all refers to the realisation that we seldom, if ever at all, have answers; we always have the ability to generate more solutions to just about any problem. But being creative is being able see or imagine a great deal of opportunity to life’s problems.”

As a thinker, you need to learn to recycle ideas, combine two or more ideas that people thought will not work and make an exceptional idea. That is how big business grows. They do not necessarily invent completely new things, the take what already exists, improve it and make it work more efficiently. They stepped out and think outside the box. Remember, it is hard to see a picture while inside the frame. Step Out, and Step up!