“The best way to have a good idea is to have a lot of ideas.” — Dr. Linus Pauling
Thomas Edison used personal invention quotas: 1 minor invention every 10 days, and 1 major invention every 6 months.
Not bad. But you can do better. Just think of how much information is at your fingertips.
The key is not to focus on the quota. Instead, you focus on asking better questions, such as, “What would be a better way to do this?”, or “What would Richard Branson do?”, etc.
Asking questions puts us in our most resourceful state. Rather than whip your brain, you entice it.
The quota, then, is a by-product. But it’s also feedback on your quantity and pace. The pace you’re capable of might truly surprise you.
And, we get more of what we count, so count what counts.
But how do you debottleneck your mind to flow ideas so freely?
Try this:
Carry a little yellow sticky pad around with you, and when you get an idea, write it down.
Write your idea down in a simple way, and keep it to one idea per sticky note.
When you clear you mind, the open the flood gates to flow your own creative ideas, resourceful thinking, and creative insights. This is the fodder of creative synthesis.
To give you some idea, when I first started doing this several years ago, I would end the week with a handful of ideas. Within a month, I was filling up entire sticky pads each week, and eventually, filling up pads each day.
I never imagined that was even remotely possible.
When you have a steady stream of ideas, you can experiment more, let the bad ones go, and run with your game changers.
Start capturing your ideas, count what counts, and enjoy the flow.
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Image by NASA Goddard Photo and Video.