Speaking Of Boxes and Holes

In today's blog, I am going to ruminate on the relationship between, "Thinking outside of Boxes," and getting oneself in holes.

"The first thing to do, when you find yourself in a hole, is to stop digging," quipped one of our most beloved figures from the past, Will Rogers. Our current nearest, lest humorous, equivalent is to, "Think outside of the box."

Just as people have a hard time understanding how they can, "think outside of the box," (because they don't understand that their Belief Systems are, "the box"), when in a hole, they can't figure out how to "stop digging," (because it is their habitual ways of functioning in the world, based on various Beliefs, that causes them to, "keep digging.").

Just as it is very difficult for individuals to, "think outside the box," because they totally identify with what they think with--their beliefs--in a like manner, individuals are totally identified with their behavior patterns, because our behaviors represent for us, "who we are." In both, it is a problem of identification, because we are Programmed to believe how we think and how we behave are equivalent to who we are as individuals.

The vast majority of individuals in our Western Society have totally accepted what they have been Programmed and Indoctrinated to believe are Fact, Truth and Reality. Also, they have accepted the Programming that their developed behavior patterns represent who they are. In actuality, behavior patters are primarily the product of Conditioning and Role Model Examples we have taken in from our very earliest years, as well as default responses we have developed to various challenges with which life presents everyone.

For these reasons, vast numbers of people are in one kind of hole in their lives or another, but do not know it, and if they realize they are, "in a hole," they do not know how to, "stop digging." For many, the first thing they can think of doing is, get a bigger shovel!--in other words, try harder using the same methods tried previously.

When problems arise in our public or private lives, the general response is to blame them on the actions of others, "if you/they/he/she hadn't....., I wouldn't have..... This particular way of blaming others for what we do--our failings and our ways of reacting--is endemic in our Western Society, and is a basic Belief which needs to be ruthlessly rooted out and discarded in order to make progress in one's effort to become responsible to and for the self.

An alternative standard solution is to go to a Therapist and get help with looking at your, "hole"/problem in new ways to try to arrive at another kind of solution which might work better. This method can help you get a better perspective by incorporating the methodology of the therapist, but, unfortunately, many therapists themselves are thinking inside the box of their own Programmed Belief System regarding Human Development and Behavior.

In, "thinking outside of boxes" the primary requirement is to stop thinking in traditional ways about a problem. Because, unless you know what you believe, and have incorporated other possible Systems, you "think" with your personal Programmed Beliefs. In a normal problem-solving situation, the easiest thing to do is bring in an, "outside expert" who will think about the problem with his/her Belief System, and come up with a different solution to the problem, which might actually work..

The key word in Will Roger's line about being in holes is, STOP"; the key to "Thinking outside the box," is to Stop thinking in habitual ways. Until we understand that everything we think we know, including all the things we have been educated to Believe are absolute Facts/Truths/Laws are to be taken out of those categories and set aside as unproven hypotheses to be used as tentative explanations for what we experience as Reality, while we test that hypotheses.

Most of the Experts in the world live in the boxes of their expertise; most are unaware that they have also dug themselves in deep holes. My favorite definition of an Expert is, "Someone who learns more and more about less and less, until they know absolutely everything about nothing."

Only by understanding that it is your Programmed and Indoctrinated Beliefs which are actually, not only what you, "think" with, but what determines how you behave, not only while you are relating socially, but also what you do every day of your lives. In order to change your life, you must examine what you have come to believe; your Belief System.

So ends today's blog.

Shirley Gallup