Learning to Think Outside the Box
by Beth Kilmore for Work-at-Home.org
What do swimming with sixty spinner dolphins a mile off the coast of Hawaii, being tracked by a grizzly bear, raising a child and running a home business have in common? In order to do any of them well and live to tell the story, you had best be the daughter of your moment. Conditions like these foster “Big Thinking” and quick thinking. But what happens when your daily business and personal life become routine and there is no grizzl y bear to oblige you by keeping your senses sharp?
How do you enjoy and embrace the challenge of building your own work at home business or doing your home-based job, caring for your family and yourself?
How does one keep it alive and outside the box?
First you must identify your box. What are the circumstances that tend to trigger you to crawl back in your box? Is it the ebb and flow of your work at home job that brings you to fear and back to the comfort of the box or is it the challenge of constantly learning something new or juggling time to work your business with meeting the family needs? Is it a lack of a steady stream of new information?
However you define your box and what lures you back there will be your red flags of limitations you impose upon yourself. They will be the map of the flat world once believed to exist. Your box is many things, but it is not a balanced state of being. So imagine a child toy TOP. How does it move through space when it is centered vs when it begins to topple over? Being is not static, but it is grace in motion. We are recreated in every moment. We are a creation of our thoughts, our attitude, our subconscious and our essence. We are all the calm in the storm, the leader, and the joyful one. We may just not be experiencing it in this moment. Strengthening your state of BEING is essential because we all get more of what we are. Have you ever tried to stop your two year old from a tantrum? You can use any method you like. However if your Being is not calm and centered the two of you are going down together. Children are a great barometer for your state of being. They actually use our state of being to figure out how they should be in a situation. This is one of the reasons “baby wearing” has become so popular and creates more relaxed, centered children. Becoming more aware of your own being and expanding from this centered place will lead to clarity of thought and unrestricted thought. This is the state that allows the mind to do its real thing and it will bring you information you never imagined was within your grasp.
So what can you DO to support you state of being? We are mind, body, soul beings. Each needs fed to keep ourselves in a state of expansion and unable to return to our box. Eventually, the box becomes more uncomfortable than comfortable and the state of continual expansion is more comfortable than contraction. Just like the feeling you had the first day you decided to start your new home business or work at home job and you knew you would be kissing your old job and its limiting lifestyle goodbye! For your mind make sure you are surrounding yourself with other expansive people! Mastermind with other big thinkers. Read personal development books daily, keep a success journal, create you passion plan. Visualize your dreams in motion, daily. Move your body in new ways, stretch. Our body begins to mimic our mind and as we open and stretch we release limiting thoughts and you will have a more relaxed open body to match your open mind. The soul requires a steady stream of joy and stillness....peace. Make time for rest and play. Yes make it and take it! Nobody will be doing that for you. Schedule fun activities weekly and time to drop into the quiet of your being at least 15 minutes a day.
“Doing” from this expanded place creates great results in whatever you are doing. You will see a transition in how you go about making decisions for your home based business, or how to manage your schedule or make time for yourself. You will have less wasted time and more decisiveness in the course of action. Your priorities will be clearer. These actions will foster the strengthening of your being, through better choices. You may find yourself headed for an evening yoga class or a sunset walk instead of TV to relax you at the end of a long day. There will not be so much “will” necessary to motivate yourself to make supportive decisions… decisions that lead you to your dreams and goals.
Which brings us to “having”. Now the having is sweet, the successful business or great work at home lifestyle, the happy home life, the healthy body. Yet now although you are enjoying your fruits, they are more like icing on the cake than the cake because you already have your cake. If you try to start with having, which is the most common way of thinking, you will get more of what you do not want. “When I have time I will go to the gym and I will be healthy”, sets you up to fail. When you’re already centered and expanding, it just creates the time to care for itself properly with no effort on your part.
So the next time you are sitting behind your computer and your mind is crumpled up like a wasted thought on a piece of paper, remember being, doing having. Check in with your state of being, ask it what it needs and move from there.
Beth Kilmore is a Personal Development and Business Entrepreneur mentor, wife and successful WAHM to her son Elijah. You can visit her site at: www.wealthymomma.com
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