You cannot become who you want to be by staying who you are.

…What does that mean, exactly?

Without lifting your finger from the paper (or screen, in this case), connect the following nine dots with four (and only four!) straight lines:

Got your solution?


Well, most people attempt to solve it this way:

…Here’s the actual solution:


In the same way that most of us try to solve this nine-dot riddle, too often we create invisible boxes in and around our lives. The lines of those invisible boxes are like big walls- they keep us from seeing solutions and possibilities that might not be as far off or intangible as we imagine they are. No one forces us to create these walls, but we often build them around ourselves anyway- and ironically, they become our biggest blockades on the road to success.

The invisible boxes you build around yourself represent your comfort zone. Often, that comfort zone is defined by your past experiences and sole perspective. Thus, your comfort zone is limited- and when you choose to live in that zone, you can only produce a limited number of solutions to problems, answers to questions, and potential options for the future.

Your comfort zone, unfortunately, is not a place of growth. If it were, you wouldn’t be comfortable in it! Having a comfort zone is necessary because without it, there would be no place or time to rest, reflect, and relax. But the meaningfulness of that rest, reflection, and relaxation can only be put into perspective and truly appreciated when you fearlessly step outside of it.

How do you develop awareness so you can find that space outside of the invisible boxes?

…Shake things up!

Take a different route to work or school; spend the weekend with a new group of friends; go on a vacation alone; find a mentor who has experience in a situation you are working through; ask ‘why not’ instead of ‘why’; find the equation in a story; find the story in an equation.

“You do not become who you want to be by staying who you are”…So what does that mean?

It means in order to become who you want to be and get to the places you want to go, you have to be willing and excited to grow. And if you are going to grow, you’ve got to draw outside of the lines a little bit- even if it is the less pretty, neat, or obvious thing to do.

You’ll find that when you allow yourself to draw outside the lines, the dots start to connect.