Think Outside the Box

I think sometimes that we all get so caught up in our work and the demand on us is so high that we don't take the time to reflect on what we do and why. I know it is easier for a business owner to do this but what about employees.
I do believe sometimes employees don't question enough or think outside the box or beyond their job to create new opportunities and business.  Mind you, it could also be that the boss won't let you, you are so micro managed that it stifles all creativity, (if your business is not growing as you think it should perhaps you are doing this!)
I have recently attended several networking events which I found through the meetup.com website. I have joined several groups and so far walked away from every one knowing something I didn't before and with new contacts to follow up in the future. If you are feeling stale in your role I would suggest you join a group, be open to new ideas and suggestions. Some ideas you will reject but others may just lead to something very unexpected. This happened to me, somebody gave me an idea. This lead to me making some calls and one of those calls has lead to a meeting later this month. The call was very timely and ended up being nothing to do with the original idea but it could bring huge opportunity to the business. So follow those leads and ideas who knows what will happen.
I know somebody who hasn't done this, I was looking for a guest speaker and they believed that what they had to offer wouldn't be relevant to the audience. This is a little silly because if I didn't think it was relevant I wouldn't have asked them! Now they will never know what connections they might have made or what the experience would have brought them. It could be that they just got cold feet, it does take some effort to get out there, build your networks, ideas and then develop them into something new and exciting.
So, take time out to think about your role, what it will look like in the future, are you moving forward or have you stagnated! If it is the latter it is time to make a change and think outside that box.