Sometimes, the best ideas can be found in the creative depths of your own mind. These ideas are often reluctant to make an appearance on their own. So how do you bring them out? You need to develop the ability to brainstorm. What is brainstorming? It’s just what it sounds like. You let your mind wander. You free yourself from all inhibitions, objections, and negative thoughts. You just put an idea into your brain and let it take off. You engage in free associating. Instead of planning a train of though, you think freely.
If you’re planning a brainstorming session with your colleagues, let me (Jim Rohn) give you a little hint. Effective brainstorming can only happen if you disassociate from your ego. You can’t be worried about saying something stupid, or silly, or totally off-the-wall. Your silly thought may trigger someone else’s brain to take it one step further. Brainstorming in a group is an experience of collective thought. It’s an experience of developing one idea, or several ideas, through a variety of thought processes.
Here’s another hint to brainstorming. It can’t be effective unless everyone involved is comfortable with each other. If you don’t feel comfortable within the group, you may withhold the very thought that provides the solution to the problem. You may withhold it because you don’t want to appear stupid.
How do you think all the advertisements you see on TV and in the magazines are created? How do you think some of those crazy campaigns are born? The process happens through hours and hours of creative brainstorming. Every member of the team jots down notes, and one idea builds on another idea, and another and another. Pretty soon, a strategy is born out of the collective thoughts of the group.
I don’t believe that the best decisions are made by committee, but great ideas are often created by committee. Whether you’re letting your brain go by itself, or whether you’re part of a group, brainstorming can often lead you to solutions–once you would never have thought of if you had imposed parameters on your thought processes.
If you are brainstorming on your own, envision outlandish solutions. Get your brain out of its rut by considering ideas without considering their practicality.
If you allow yourself to think without confinement, you may come across a solution that seems totally inappropriate, but this approach will allow you to open up the process, which will eventually lead to appropriate solutions.
Another creative technique for generating ideas is through doodling. Doodling may be something you got in trouble for in grade school, but it’s actually quite stimulating to the brain. The way you think while doodling is quite different than the way you think while creating a flow chart or writing a formula.
Your doodles may end up looking like a symbol that triggers your brain to think of an alternative solution. Drawing creative doodles wakes up a different part of your brain. And once you awaken that creative part of you–whether it’s through group brainstorming, individual brainstorming, or doodling–you’ll be amazed at the ideas you’ll trigger from the recesses of your mind. Those ideas were always there, but you may never have known how to access them. Once you understand your own potential, this unlimited source is yours for the asking.
* Source: Leading an Inspired Life by Jim Rohn