If you think you’re a person who thinks out of the box, you may not be that yet. For me, the ones who can think out of the box normally do it without knowing. It’s a part of their lives so it happens automatically. Why can these people do it naturally? Because this type of person usually asks questions that some people may not even think about. The first easy question for them can be like: why was I born? What made me different from others? Where to go after death? It seems a big or tough issue, right? Yet, this kind of person is gradually developing a thinking system that supports them to think outside the box. So in the beginning, it may not be about work-related issues at all; it can be anything in our lives.
To pinpoint on that, it’s about having questioning skills. Questioning skills play an important role for developing the quality of thinking outside the box. Without a thorough understanding of a particular stuff, it’s hard to think outside the box. You will think in the same way, same level, or same scale as others as you don’t gain any insight to have such quality. So it’s hard to think out of the box. Questioning is one of the best ways to clarify things and gather information so that you can develop critical thinking, as well as problem-solving skills.
Deep, true peace
At WPI, once or twice a year, we usually offer a training called “International Peace Training”, a combination of a youth training camp and a meditation retreat. How and why? A youth training camp usually allows you to talk, laugh, play, and network with people while a meditation retreat provides time for silence and reflection. As we believe that these two elements can go smoothly hand in hand for anyone to develop inner peace, happiness, and good life experience, we combine them.
We start our training program with ice-breaking activities and end with presentation and group discussion, while during 14 days participants also meditate four times a day (around 4-6 hours) and engage in mindfulness activities. By balancing yourself well, talking less and meditating more, you can still find deep, true peace, and it works. Our participants understand the basic meditation practice, know how to apply meditation and mindfulness in their daily lives, and form a good relationship or even collaboration with like-minded people. Since 2010, we have almost 1,000 representatives or so called “Peace Agents” in over 120 countries who have made an impact to over 100,000 people worldwide.
Longest free online program
Another example is “Peace Revolution” that we initiated in 2008 and officially launched in 2010 which was the time when the concept of online meditation or even meditation apps was not that popular yet. One of the most challenging things was that we wanted this platform to be interactive between users and developers as we wanted to see the tangible transformation of each user. Therefore, we had designed it to consist of 2 main parts: online meditation and self-development through daily reflection. Each user would have his or her own online journal for 42 days to interact with personal coaches free of charge.
All these requirements made it difficult and time-consuming to develop especially it was hard to convince sponsors and donors that this online system would work and attract new generations. However, unbelievably, we had users from over 100 countries within a few years! With a thorough understanding of the nature of the mind, even though no one had done this kind of program before, we were confident to do it! And it has become the longest free online program for mind empowerment and habit development.
People who can think out of the box are the ones who are usually not afraid of failure as many times their ideas or approaches are so new or innovative, and they need courage and confidence to execute them. So they keep learning through rise and fall.
If you want to start a journey towards yourself, join our online self-development program, and download our Mind stories app.