Thinking Outside the Box: Who does the box belong to?

It's a familiar phrase that everyone has heard at least 200 billion times in their lives:  "think outside the box."  It is sometimes used to inspire a creative breakthrough, or to answer a question you've been asked that you don't really know the answer to.  Its also a compliment for creative achievement or problem solving ("Way to think outside the box!").

It is assumed from a very young age that everyone knows what "the box" is, but I can't remember anyone ever actually explaining it's meaning to me.  Nor can I recall whose box it is that I'm thinking outside of.  Who determines what thoughts originate inside vs. outside the "box"?  After reading into it, I have discovered an answer to the question of what the box is.  According to a wikipedia source, thinking outside the box "is to think differently, unconventionally or from a new perspective. This phrase often refers to novel or creative thinking." So now that we've figured out what "thinking outside the box" actually is, it can be concluded that "the box" is conventional or uncreative thinking, but I still haven't figured out who the box belongs to.


When I was younger, my father often told me to think outside the box when I couldn't figure something out.  I am a "one track mind" kind of person and I sometimes had difficulty seeing other alternatives to my problem besides the one I had already tried, and that had failed.  I would eventually find a different way to look at the issue and fix it, but it took a while before I automatically tried a new approach when my first one didn't work the way I had hoped.  The point I'm trying to make is that when looking at a problem or a project, "the box" can be thought of as our personal limits to everyday thought.  In essence, everyone has a different box, THEIR box.  The challenge then, is not to think outside of a general box, but to think differently than one would normally think.  For instance, when I was about 4 years old I remember my father and I were going to a family reunion and my job was to put two bottles of water (one for me and one for my dad) into the truck.  When I got to truck, water in hand, I realized that I couldn't open the door while I was carrying both of the water bottles, so I told my dad, who was sitting in the drivers seat.  His reply was to think of a way to open get the door open.  "You can open the door for me!", I exclaimed a little perturbed that he didn't think of this himself.  "yes, I most certainly could, but how can YOU open the door?" he asked through the window.  A minute went by and the thought hit me like a stone brick.  I put the water on the ground and opened the door, then picked up the water bottles and put them in the seat.  I wouldn't have normally thought to open the door myself.  Being only four, I was still used to people doing things for me when I couldn't and I had never needed to be very independent.  


It's difficult to wrap your head around "thinking outside of the box", but given instances like mine where you have to think about things you've never thought about before, you might be surprised at how easily alternative thinking comes to you.