How can I get my thinking out of the/my box?
Pay a lot of attention to realizing you (and all of us) are in "boxes". This means what we think of as "reality" are just our beliefs" and that "the present" is just a particular construction. The future need have no necessary connection to this present once you realize it is just one of many possible presents it could have been. This will allow you to make much more use of the past (you can now look at things that didn't lead to this present, but which now can be valuable).