Monday is the day I focus on creativity - or 'cre8ivity' as I like to call it!

Many of us creatives believe that the metaphor of "thinking outside the box" actually comes from the famous Nine Dots exercise. In this exercise, all nine dots - equidistant on the page - can be joined with four, straight, consecutive lines.

!!!Spoiler Alert!!!

If you've never done the exercise, have a look your daily email and see if you can solve the 'problem' without the clues that follow.

Jack in the Box?

I think it's time for many of us to Jack in the Box we've been living in.

This might be a job.

It might be a relationship.

It might be a limiting belief.

But before we jump, let's think about 'Jack Out-of-the-Box'!

Solving the Nine Dots Puzzle requires you to extend the straight lines beyond the boundaries of the 'invisible' grid or box that the nine dots appear to represent. They are an artificial constraint for most people. The 'box' is imagined, not real. The rules and restrictions are invented. I'm sure you can see where this is going!

The key to the solution is to challenge the variables - the negotiables.

Non-negotiables are that the lines have to be straight, consecutive (i.e. pen or pencil remains in contact with the paper and there are no breaks in the lines), and there have to be four of them that join all nine dots. Just about everything else is negotiable!

This means the length of the lines, the size of the dots, the width of the line, the 'size' of the frame - all these are negotiable.

Now is the time for the deep bit...

There are very few non-negotiables in your life.

Lex

A Moodscope member.