In 2009, a movie titled “The Box” was released. There’s a short scene from the movie that I wanted to share:
Here’s the dialogue from the scene:
“Your home is a box. Your car is a box on wheels. You drive to work in it. You drive home in it. You sit in your home staring at your box. It erodes your soul while the box that is your body withers and dies. Whereupon it is placed in the ultimate box to slowly decompose.”
When I watched this scene, I was inside my box watching a box. It actually pissed me off, because this is exactly how we live. I also realized things are actually worse than described in the scene…
Once we are at work, we spend eight or nine hours typing into a box (I’m typing into a box right now as I write this). When we’re not working or sleeping, we spend 90% of our time looking at a small box that we hold in our hands. We cannot go anywhere without this little handheld box. We feel compulsion to check this little box hundreds of times a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
Kind of scary, isn’t it?
On top of all of this, we all operate inside an imaginary box of limiting beliefs. These limiting beliefs create a box around what we’re able to actually accomplish in our lives. Over the years, we’ve picked up hundreds of beliefs about what we’re able to do AND what we’re not able to do. Most of these beliefs aren’t accurate; however, we live as if they were.
These beliefs hold us in place, locked in our imaginary boxes.
“I can’t create $20,000 a month of cashflow.”
“I can’t afford to quit my job.”
“I can’t lose weight.”
“I can’t run a marathon.”
“I can’t pay off all of my debt.”
“I’ll never achieve the Position of Fuck You”
Lies. Each and every one is a damn lie. These lies form a self-imposed box around our lives. These lies create a prison cell around us.
The reality is we can accomplish a lot more than we think. The spread between our self-imposed limits and our actual limits is enormous. We don’t have to accept ANY limitation in our lives. We have to escape our self- imposed box
Here’s How To Escape Your Box
In Harry Browne’s life changing book titled “How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World,” you’ll find a chapter titled “The Box Trap.”
He wrote:
“Many people complain that freedom isn’t possible in the real world. Often the person complaining is an individual who has accepted restrictions upon his life that make it seem impossible to be free. In effect, he’s in a box. A box is any uncomfortable situation that restricts an individual’s freedom. And the Box Trap is the assumption that the cost of getting out of a bad situation is too great to consider…. The Box Trap is the vague feeling that the box must be accepted because there’s no way out.”
Browne just described the black box in my sketch. We feel like we’re trapped or stuck in some way.
He continues:
“Everything you want in life has a price connected to it. There’s a price to pay if you want to make things better, a price to pay just for leaving things as they are, a price for everything. The price may be in time, effort, money, emotional turmoil, or physical discomfort. It always comes back to time, however. Whatever you do with your time, you pay a price by forgoing other alternatives – other things you could have done with that time.”
You can step out of whatever your box is by paying the required price. If you want more cashflow in your life, you have to pay the price to create the cashflow.
This price may include all of the following:
- Investing a significant amount of your time.
- Investing your money.
- Accepting calculated risk.
- Getting out of your comfort zone.
- Passing on the possible appreciation of the stock
market. - Making mistakes.
- Losing money.
- Learning how to be resourceful in dealing with
problems.
Any time you look to someone who has something you want in life, you have to understand this person paid the price to what they have.
Jeff Bezos is the richest men in the world. He also has paid a massive price to have what he was. He started Amazon in his garage and has built it into the amazing business it is today. Throughout this journey, he has invested his time and his money. He has taken massive risk. He has failed over and over again. He has dealt with criticism and rejection. He has solved thousands of problems. He has become a different person on this journey.
Think about someone who is in great shape with a sixpack. What price have they paid? Or how about someone who is debt free? What price have they paid? Are you willing to pay the same price?
Back to Browne:
“The first thing to recognize is that you’re paying a price every day you remain in the box. You’re foregoing more attractive alternatives. And you suffer discomfort just from knowing that you don’t like the situation, plus the discomfort of whatever you have to do to keep from rocking the boat. The second thing to realize is that there is a way out. To get out, you have to pay the price.”
- First, identify the box. What is it that’s causing you
discomfort? - Think of what you would do if you weren’t in the
box. What is your box preventing you from doing? - Identify the price you have to pay to get out of your
box. There is always a price to pay to get out of your
situation. - Picture yourself paying the price. It may be painful
just to think about it. Go through the entire experience
in your mind. How can you make it less painful? - Set an action plan, and pay the price.
Browne actually suggests testing this approach on a small issue:
“Take a minor irritant in your life as a first test. Decide what it’s costing you, what it will cost to be rid of it, and what you’ll do with the freedom you’ll acquire when you’re rid of it. Then pay the price.”
The bottom line is you won’t escape your box unless you pay the price. There is no shortcut. There is no easy way out. It will be hard, and nobody will do it for you.
Do you have what it takes?
Oddly enough, we can use boxes to escape our box. We can profit from other people’s boxes.
Picture a large apartment building. Each apartment is box. The person who owns the property is collecting income from each box. A box that houses a family. The price for financial freedom may be the price you have to pay
to acquire income-producing boxes.
Or you can use your computer (box) to create a business that generates cashflow for your family. I’m using a box right now to generate future cashflow for my family.
The goal is to figure out what box you’re stuck in. Then look to see what box you can use to escape. Instead of paying to go to an escape-room, you’re playing the escape-room game in real life.
