“At what point do you say, ‘Wow, I really want to dangle upside down from scarves and play the violin for a living'?” This question was posed by myself and couple friends of mine as we reconnected over a cup of coffee. We were discussing life paths and career choices, when one of my friends mentioned Janice Martin, an aerial violinist. We wondered: what is the secret to thinking so decidedly out of the box as this aerial violinist does?

To be sure, thinking outside of the box is a rather cliché concept now, the subject of countless self-help books, business seminars, and the like. Regardless, it truly is something people seem to have a hard time executing. We learn early on as children to draw inside the lines, follow all the rules, and act orderly and contained. Creativity, while not completely disregarded, is often more of an afterthought. We follow the same pattern : go to school, build a career, get married, have kids, and those who dare to do those in a different order or on a different timeframe are often questioned or ridiculed.

It may be that our ability to categorize things and box things in serves an important purpose. In fact, our brains seem hard-wired to place everything into neat little boxes.  Psychological theory calls these boxes “schemas”:  mental structures to organize information. Every time your brain receives new information, it tries to fit it inside one of its already pre-conceived schemas. It is an efficient and quick way to store, retrieve, and process information, helping us to respond quickly and appropriately to many situations. However, when we encounter new experiences or information that does not fit into a schema, a common reaction is to ignore or quickly forget the offending information. Occasionally, new information that differs so completely from a schema but cannot be ignored will cause an existing schema to be altered or to create a separate schema for “exceptions from the rule”. The question is, do these schemas we have created for ourselves and our roles needlessly box us in?

Let’s go back to the aerial violinist. According to her <a href="http://www.janicemartin.com/">website</a>, Janice Martin is a classically trained violinist, pianist and vocalist who works with the Cirque du Symphonie, combining her talents aerial acrobats to be the "world's only aerial violinist", also headlining in Branson, MO with the <a href="http://www.showboatbransonbelle.com/">Showboat Branson Belle</a>. Truly, just taking her accomplishments in piecemeal format, she is a formidable artist.

Musically trained at The Juilliard and Indiana School of Music, she boasts such honors as solos with the Milwaukee Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Houston Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Edmonton Symphony, Portland Symphony, European Union Chamber Orchestra and the New York Symphonic Ensemble, as well as a Carnegie Hall debut. The Stradivari Society even awarded her the honorary use of the 1708 Burstein/Bagshawe Stradivarius Violin in recognition of her accomplishments. Her career and accomplishments solely as a musician is impressive.

Wearing skin-tight outfits and dangling upside down from scarves and rings from great heights while playing the electric violin is not exactly something that appeals to me for my own career, but I would like to have this woman’s ability to completely bust out of the box.

My friends and I who were discussing Janice Martin's act were still trying to figure out what we wanted to do “when we grew up”, despite having  graduated from college and started various jobs, careers, and families, and having reached the milestone 30th birthday. We also wanted careers or callings that were unique and interesting, even beyond moving away from the typical 9-5 office job.  Or more importantly, we wanted careers that were uniquely suited to ourselves. Are there gifts, talents and interests that I have that I previously thought I could not combine, that together would create one exceptionally unique career, much like the dangling aerial violinist? Maybe there is still hope that I can combine playing viola, writing, and drinking coffee into a fulfulling career.

I think it is more than that, however.  Maybe we don’t have to find that “one thing” to do for the rest of our lives. Maybe, just maybe, it’s okay to do something completely different and change careers every 5 years, or 10 years, or X years. Variety and change in vocations and careers doesn’t necessarily mean there is an inability to commit or  a lack of will power to see things through. It might just mean the project is finished and it’s time for the next thing.

God created us in His image, so we too are creative beings. Isn’t it high time we moved in more freedom in creating…and not just in creating more boxes? Life is too short to do things just to fit inside someone else’s or our own self-built boxes.

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