The way to really think "out of the box" is to take ordinary items and to envision them as being useful for something else. If you ever saw the movie Patch Adams, you saw an example of this in the scene where Patch repairs the leak in someone’s cup and earns his nickname. Even if you haven’t seen the movie, you’ve probably still seen some example of how an individual saw something in a way that you just didn’t see it.

The way to make yourself into the kind of person who can see the world in this way is to practice. Take time each day to brainstorm the creative uses for random items. For example, sit down right now and make a list of all of the creative things that you could do with a set of aircraft components. One idea would be to take a bunch of bearings and string them into a necklace. Another would be to use avionics for making decorative clocks. Challenge yourself to come up with a list of at least twenty different creative uses for these parts.

Making a list like this doesn’t take up a lot of your time. You can do it at the same time each day (over breakfast, before bed). By doing so, you will be stretching the limits of your imagination on a regular basis. And this is what will allow you to broaden your mind and begin to see things in ways that you hadn’t been seeing them before.