{"id":11480,"date":"2012-09-23T22:39:29","date_gmt":"2012-09-24T06:39:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/?p=11480"},"modified":"2013-09-20T09:09:04","modified_gmt":"2013-09-20T17:09:04","slug":"3-sure-fire-ways-to-generate-new-and-great-ideas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/3-sure-fire-ways-to-generate-new-and-great-ideas\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Sure-Fire Ways to Generate New and Great Ideas"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><p><a href=\"http:\/\/wp.me\/pAjjf-2Za\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Do you want new and great ideas?<\/p>\n<p>The kind that makes people<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Smile in wonder and possibility after you introduce it<\/li>\n<li>Question why they don\u2019t ask for your opinion more often<\/li>\n<li>Recognize how intelligent, creative and brilliant you really are<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If you&#8217;re nodding your head, I have a question for you:<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s the problem?<\/p>\n<p>Why aren\u2019t you coming up with awesome ideas?<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Why do you have trouble coming up with even good ideas?<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s probably because you believe that great ideas are reserved for a lucky few.<\/p>\n<p>I have some good news and bad news for you.<\/p>\n<p>First, the bad (<em>that\u2019s the way I prefer it<\/em>): To have new and great ideas require work. The belief that an excellent idea just pops into your head in an AHA! moment is wrong. Eureka, like overnight success, takes time.<\/p>\n<p>Now the good: It is possible for\u00a0<strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">anyone<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0to generate great ideas. Stop thinking that\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.embracepossibility.com\/blog\/empower-yourself-now\/\">you can\u2019t be creative and realize that you just don\u2019t know how<\/a>. You have all the resources you need to create awesome ideas and lucky for you, this article will show you how to do it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Broaden Your Horizons<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Imagine having one building block, you probably can\u2019t do much with it except put it on its different sides.<\/p>\n<p>What if you had 2? Now you can do some rudimentary stacking.<\/p>\n<p>What if you had 5? Would you be able to build more things? Different things?<\/p>\n<p>What if you had 100 building blocks? Imagine the possibilities.<\/p>\n<p>Ideas work the same way.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\" align=\"center\"><em><strong>Experiences are the building blocks for ideas.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>To have new ideas, you need to collect new experiences.<\/p>\n<p>What you can do?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Read books of all genres and do it often.<\/li>\n<li>Travel to different places. The more different the better.<\/li>\n<li>Visit museums. Attend concerts. Listen to music you don&#8217;t usually listen to<\/li>\n<li>Attend a workshop, class or seminar \u2013\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/nlptraining.com\/nlp-training\/\">Neurolinguistic Programming<\/a>, Creative Writing, etc.<\/li>\n<li>Do puzzles that challenge your thinking \u2013 Check out\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/1580087736\/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=1580087736&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=embpos-20\">Thinkertoys<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Learn a new language \u2013 speaking a different language allows you to<a href=\"http:\/\/online.wsj.com\/article\/SB10001424052748703467304575383131592767868.html\">\u00a0access different minds<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Push the Limits and Play on the Edge<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A great way to get your creative juices flowing is by playing on the edge.<\/p>\n<p>Whatever topic you need ideas for, first get to the outer limit, get comfortable and then start pushing it further.<\/p>\n<p>Think \u2013est.<\/p>\n<p>Ask:<\/p>\n<p>What is the fastest, biggest, broadest, smallest?<\/p>\n<p>What happens if I magnify it? Minify it?<\/p>\n<p>What if I rearranged different elements? Combined my various experiences and ideas?<\/p>\n<p>Don&#8217;t be afraid to be &#8220;wrong&#8221; and stop trying to come up with the perfect idea.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Storage<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Ideas, like all great things, rarely come when we are looking for them.<\/p>\n<p>They usually come at random times in the day and it is important for you to capture them for future use.<\/p>\n<p>I always carry something that I can take notes on. It&#8217;s either my notebook, my iphone or some random piece of paper. When I get home I transfer these thoughts into my ideas book or organize them into\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/evernote.com\/\">Evernote<\/a>\u00a0depending on the type of idea. The important thing is to capture EVERYTHING. Even if it&#8217;s something that I don&#8217;t look at for months, when I do finally look at it, it helps me to generate many more ideas.<\/p>\n<p>You\u2019ve just learned 3 easy ways to come up with new and great ideas. It is easy to say, \u201cthat\u2019s nice\u201d or \u201cthat makes a lot of sense\u201d and promise yourself that you\u2019ll use these tips \u201cone day\u201d. We all know how that goes.<\/p>\n<p>I encourage you strongly to apply what you learned immediately and here are some suggestions:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Decide right now how you will capture your ideas no matter where you are: Get a notepad or voice recorder, sign up for\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/evernote.com\/\">Evernote<\/a>\u00a0(it\u2019s free) or create an ideas sticky note on your desktop.<\/li>\n<li>Commit to reading something that you would not normally read (ask your friends for a recommendation or go to the library and browse a section you don\u2019t normally look at). Here are a\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.embracepossibility.com\/about\/recommended-reading\/\">few books that I enjoyed reading.<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Visit a museum that you\u2019ve never heard of.<\/li>\n<li>If you need to come up with new ideas for something particular. Walk along the edges of the idea and start trying to push the edge. Ask yourself questions that end in -est or try to combine elements that don&#8217;t normally go together.<\/li>\n<li>Look into taking a language class or signing up for a thought provoking workshop (comedy improv, NLP or creative writing)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Which one of these suggestions will you take first?<\/p>\n<p>Do you have any tips for being creative?<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.embracepossibility.com\/about\/about-me\/\"><em><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Robert Chen<\/span><\/em><\/a><em>\u00a0is the founder of\u00a0<\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.embracepossibility.com\/\"><em><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Embrace Possibility<\/span><\/em><\/a><em>\u00a0and the author of The Dreams to Reality Fieldbook. He helps people gain clarity and move forward in life. If you\u2019re going through a tough time right now, check out Robert\u2019s article on\u00a0<\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.embracepossibility.com\/blog\/how-to-feel-better\/\"><em><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">How to Feel Better Right Away<\/span><\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>If you find that you\u2019re having trouble getting what you want out of life, check out\u00a0<\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.embracepossibility.com\/blog\/how-to-always-achieve-your-goals-lessons-learned-from-childhood\/\"><em><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">How to Always Achieve Your Goals<\/span><\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bigstockphoto.com\/image-5045479\/stock-photo-creativity\">Photo credit<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>First, the bad (that\u2019s the way I prefer it): To have new and great ideas require work. The belief that an excellent idea just pops into your head in an AHA! moment is wrong. Eureka, like overnight success, takes time.<\/p>\n<p>Now the good: It is possible for anyone to generate great ideas. Stop thinking that you can\u2019t be creative and realize that you just don\u2019t know how. You have all the resources you need to create awesome ideas and lucky for you, this article will show you how to do it. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/3-sure-fire-ways-to-generate-new-and-great-ideas\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12163,"featured_media":11482,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[45,6],"tags":[4650,66,54,4629,4640],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>3 Sure-Fire Ways to Generate New and Great Ideas - Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Do you want new and great ideas? The kind that makes people Smile in wonder and possibility after you introduce it Question why they don\u2019t ask for your opinion more often Recognize how intelligent, creative and brilliant you really are\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/3-sure-fire-ways-to-generate-new-and-great-ideas\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"3 Sure-Fire Ways to Generate New and Great Ideas - Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Do you want new and great ideas? 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