There are two primary ways we get in our own way. First, there is what Anthony Robbins refers to as 'state management'. By this he means managing 'emotional states'. A negative, destructive emotional or attitudinal state may not necessarily get in your way in achieving a specific outcome. In fact, a negative state may give you a temporary adrenaline boost, making you even more effective in your chosen field. But this is analogous to athletes who achieve enhanced performance through drugs. It ultimately can lead to only one outcome: self-ruin. So, in the long term poor state management, entailing a dominant negative state that returns day after day, will get in your way, and do so with more destructive effects, than almost anything.

The solution is fairly simple: get out of your way by adhering to a clear, definite ethical code. This truly is paramount. Human beings need morality as much as they need oxygen and water.

The second manner in which we get in our way is by relying too much on a 'routinized' technique to achieve results in any given endeavor. Relying entirely on my skill, my technical facility, will close me off from possibilities that lie outside the 'box' of that specific technique. This is diametrically the opposite to becoming very proficient using a technique, but never becoming dependent on it for the results you create. Some philosophers maintain that becoming proficient in a given technique in fact leads us to expand 'beyond' it, in effect opening ourselves to explore possibilities beyond the box. A zen of 'techne', or the method of doing a thing.

Thinking outside the box eventually means breaking out of established, known, tried and tested techniques of reaching a desired outcome - essentially by becoming supremely excellent using that technique. Thinking outside the box also means, as explained earlier, managing our emotional states. Although thinking generally precedes and causes emotion, negative emotions and attitudes can have a feedback effect, limiting our capacity for initiating thoughts that take us outside the box.

These are two ways we get in our own way, and two ways of correcting this.

Learn more about this author, Stephen Carter.
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