If the 20th century was dominated by resource extraction and manufacturing, the 21st century is and will continue to be dominated by ideas.
Therefore, becoming an effective creator of ideas is necessary if you want to thrive these days. If you try to take on the oligarchs in the telecommunications or oil industry, you’ll get destroyed – guaranteed.
Instead, approach everyday problems from a different angle and you’ll have little to no competition – all those customers to yourself … sounds good to us!
When you create your own game, success becomes easier … but how does one improve their ideas to the point where this becomes possible?
From keeping an idea journal to cataloging doable suggestions using idea management software, there are plenty of routes you can take to make this happen.
In this post, we’ll run down our best suggestions on how you can come up with better ideas in the weeks and months ahead.
1) Increase the size of your idea muscle
In the latter stages of 2008, stock market hedge fund manager and entrepreneur James Altucher was facing a personal crisis.
The crash that kicked off the Great Recession left him penniless, and after selling physical assets, he was left with only $162.
Holing himself up in a house in the Hudson Valley, he confronted his fears and began a series of self-improvement measures that led to him becoming the success he is today.
A linchpin of his daily practice involved writing down a minimum of ten ideas to start the day. It didn’t matter how bad they were, but only that he used his brain to come up with new ways of doing things.
He documented the details of this act and others in Choose Yourself, a book that has been his most successful to date.
When you start coming up with ideas on a regular basis, your brain makes connections it otherwise would never make, giving it the elasticity to approach any problem with fresh thinking.
Do the same as James did, and within weeks, you’ll be churning out ideas of better quality than most people around you.
2) Feel your fears and act anyway
Fear stands between our present self and the hero we know we can become. However, our primeval brain, still possessing characteristics from our cave-dwelling days, is too cautious for its own good in a time where we need to change fast to keep up with the world.
By trusting in your ability to cope with changes that come your way while pursuing your dreams, you will be able to make the ideas you have become reality.
3) If it excites or intrigues you, you should do it
Out of all the ideas we come up with, the ones we should pour our soul into should be those that quicken our pulse or make us sit up straight in our chair.
Chasing ideas based on money-making potential may appeal to many at first, but if it bores the heck out of you, you’ll run out of steam by the fourth or fifth hurdle.
Ideas that get your motor running will keep you powering through every problem you encounter. In time, you’ll find ways to get it to produce the cash you’ll need for your life, so don’t focus singularly on money.
