If It's Over the Plate, Hit it

Generally when you think it's "outside the box" and the umpire calls it a strike, you're operating from a small box.

If you are constantly patting yourself on the back for “thinking outside the box,” you probably started with a small box.

The phrase has become a defense for the timid, those afraid to make unpopular decisions, who are often, from too much fear of being second guessed, justifying quite modest and ordinary choices.  They are doing the best job they can of “chest pumping”—my thinking, broad and discerning; your thinking, a little too narrow. 

The problem is this.  We all need to stay in touch with a changing reality, we all should be adjusting to new problems and new opportunities.  We all should be keeping our eye on the ball.  We use to call this “Yankee know-how.” 

You are not an inspired, creative doer, taking bold, challenging directions, just because you describe your actions as “thinking outside the box.”

I remember a long-ago television discussion between Robert Kennedy and a Bircher New York Congressman, who in the course of the debate, announced that he was “against wasteful government spending.”  Kennedy replied, “You are probably surprised to hear that I am also against WASTEFUL spending.  Now that we have both taken this courageous stand, can we get back to the issues.” He must have thought he was thinking outside the box. 

We are all at the plate to take a swing at the ball.  You can’t claim superior hitting when you only swing at balls in a narrow zone of your own choosing.  It’s not “your” strike zone that matters and it isn’t sometimes even the official strike zone.  Some of baseball’s best hitters go outside the strike zone to take it deep. 

If the pitch is hittable, swing and don’t expect rewards for your exceptional “daring.”