Putting People into Boxes (the Not-to Guide)
How to reduce box-thinking for yourself and the ones around you
I don’t know how often you have realized that your personal reality is shaped by thinking in boxes.
Assuming that person A is just like person B because you see similarities and compare with your past experiences.
Or relying on your past achievements to predict your own potential in the future.
I would like to start this post with something very important.
It is normal to put ourselves and others into boxes.
This is how our brains work. By categorizing and classifying we help our brains to be quick and to reduce complexity. If we did not think in boxes, we would be completely lost and overwhelmed by the amount of details and individualism entering our heads.
However, box-thinking is also very limiting. This is how prejudices are created. This is how we believe that we or someone else cannot achieve a certain goal. This is how we rely on false assumptions and take them as our truth.
Let’s look at ourselves. How often has it happened that you define yourself by speaking in boxes? For example:
I’m an engineer.
