Ideas are what make the future better. I believe that anyone is one idea away from a major breakthrough in their life. One idea can change EVERYTHING in your life. It can mean the difference for you financially, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. An idea can change the course of your life and the lives of those around you. Everything got started because of an idea. The chair you are sitting in came from an idea, the computer you are reading this on came from an idea, the building you are in right now came from an idea, this blog post came from an idea. Basically EVERYTHING we know in life originally came from an idea and if that idea was never thought of you would not have the luxury of it. Ideas are what make the quality of our life better. All it takes is one idea for you to go from average to good and then from good to great! Jim Rohn said,

“Ideas can be life-changing. Sometimes all you need to open the door is just one more good idea.”

Ideas open the door for creative opportunities. If there is one skill I think EVERYONE should grow in, it is the ability to think of ideas. You will only be limited by the amount of ideas you come up with in life. The more ideas you have the more opportunity you have, the less ideas you have the less opportunity for great things to happen to you. If you want to become limitless get ideas. The more you grow your ability to get ideas the more you will experience a great life.

I have found that most people do not take the time to think of ideas, therefore they limit their potential. Most people wait for an idea to come to them rather than developing their ideas. Rarely does an idea just come to you, usually is it forged through a process of intentional thinking (we will get to that later in the week).

All throughout history life as we know it was changed by ideas. Every advancement in technology came from ideas. It wasn’t until the idea was thought of that it came to be. Take flight for example…the Wright Brothers did not invent gravity or lift from the momentum of pressure and velocity they simply had an idea that harnessed it. Alexander Graham Bell did not invent sound waves however he had an idea to use them to create the telephone. Gravity and sound waves have been around since the beginning of time, however it wasn’t until someone had an IDEA that they were able to tap into the potential of it. The point is potential is EVERYWHERE, we just need the ideas to grab ahold of it.

No matter who you are you NEED ideas. If you own a business you need ideas on how to make more money and provide better services. If you are a family man/woman you need ideas on how to connect with your family and raise your kids. If you are an employee you need ideas on how to do your job better and potentially get a raise or higher position. If you are looking for a job you need ideas on what you want to do with your life. If you are in need of ANYTHING you need ideas on how to get it. EVERYONE needs ideas in order to get better.

Fortunately one of my favorite subjects to talk about is how to get ideas. So you have come to the right place! During this series “How To Get Ideas” I want to help you figure out how to get ideas that will change your life. I want to help you be as creative as you can when it comes to the quality of your life. Eleanor Roosevelt said,

“Small minds discuss people; average minds discuss events; great minds discuss ideas.”

That’s what we are going to do in this series discuss IDEAS…so get ready!

Ideas change the course of our life. The more ideas we have, and certainly the quality of ideas we have determine the life we live. Ideas are vital to living our potential. We are one idea away from a major breakthrough in our life. Financially, physically, emotionally, spiritually, etc…

So how do you get ideas? What are they? How do you know which ones are worthy? What do you do with them? These are all questions I want to answer during the course of this blog series. So to start off, let’s talk about how to get ideas…Thomas Edison said,

“To have a great idea, have a lot of them.”

Ideas birth ideas. If you want to have great ideas surround yourself with ideas. How do you surround yourself with ideas? You fill your mind with meaningful stuff. Fill your mind with information about the topic you want ideas in. If you want ideas on how to build a house would you study sowing? NO! You would get books, blogs, magazines, videos, etc… on how to build a house. The more information you put into your mind the more ideas you will get. Ideas breed more ideas. When you surround yourself with the topic you want to have ideas in you will find more ideas. Most people expect an idea to pop into their mind out of nowhere, but rarely does this happen. Usually it is through intentional thinking and studying about a subject that ideas are birthed. Ideas spawn many other ideas which in turns into great potential. Artist Pablo Picasso said,

“I begin with an idea and then it becomes something else.”

Ideas are like a door, when you walk through one it leads to another. That door will lead to another door, which will lead to another door, which eventually will lead to a BIG door of opportunity. When it comes to ideas quantity is where you start. It usually takes 3-5 average ideas to turn into 1 good idea! And 5-8 good ideas to turn into 1 great idea! The more ideas you come up with the greater the odds you will get a great idea. When it comes to ideas you have to stay with the issue long enough to keep thinking of new ideas. Most people quit when no ideas are coming to them. They give up too early and stop short of ideas. Albert Einstein said,

“It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.”

Keep studying and filling your mind with information and resources about the topic you want to get ideas in. Stay with the subject each and every day. Earl Nightingale taught that if you study one subject for one hour a day for five years straight you will become an expert in that field. Why do you become an expert? Because you stay with the issue long enough to know it inside and out.

So how do you get ideas? Spend time thinking and surrounding yourself with resources in the topic you want ideas in!

Lesson #1 is…Spend Time Thinking

You have to take the time to consume your brain with ideas. Most people don’t spend enough time thinking. They are SO busy with life and zoning out that they don’t take the necessary time to simply think. You are today where your thoughts have taken you and you will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you, so spend time THINKING! Carve out at least 20-30 minutes a day to simply think about ideas for whatever your need or opportunities are. Stay with the issue until you get a few ideas. Remember surround yourself with resources. READ, READ, READ…the best way to get ideas is to read about other people’s ideas. So if you are in need of finances read about how to grow your finances, you will be amazed at how many ideas you get! If you are in need of ideas about how to deal with people read about people connecting principles, you will be amazed at how many ideas you will get! Fill your mind with thoughts and there will be an overflow of ideas.

Now I want to talk about the next step after taking time to think. Remember ideas birth more ideas, if you want to have great ideas you have to take the time to intentionally think. But what happens once you start to get ideas? I think we have all had great ideas that popped into our mind at times. Sometimes they come when we are intentionally thinking of them, sometimes they come to us while we are driving, in the shower, working out, eating, in our conversations with others, at work, etc… Everyone gets ideas all throughout the day. According to research by UCLA the average person has 70,000 thoughts per day. I am sure there are some great ideas hiding out in there somewhere. I bet you remember having some great ideas at times throughout the day that you thought could change the world. But what happen to them? Where did they go? The issue isn’t that we don’t have ideas, it’s that we don’t remember what they were!

How many times have you been going about your day and had an amazing thought that really impacted you? But then what happened later that night? You tried to remember what it was, but nothing comes to your mind! Great ideas get lost if not written down and collected. Too many ideas come and go through our mind to simply hope you remember them. You can’t rely on memory, you have to take the time to collect them by writing them down.

Lesson #2 Collect Your Ideas

If you don’t collect ideas, you will forget what ideas you had. Think about how many amazing ideas have been lost in the sea of forgetfulness. French Composer Hector Berlioz said,

“Every composer knows the anguish and despair occasioned by forgetting ideas which one had no time to write down.”

If you do not take the time to write down and collect your ideas you WILL lose them. When you lose ideas you lose the potential for incredible opportunities. What a tragedy that we would forget and not take the time to write down every idea that pops into our mind. If we forget to collect ideas we are in danger of missing our future. Government official Paul Nitze said,

“One of the most dangerous forms of human error is forgetting what one is trying to achieve.”

We can’t let our ideas come in our mind and go out just as fast! Collect as many ideas as you can. Write down everything that comes to your mind. Remember ideas birth more ideas, however if you are not collecting your ideas you won’t be able to birth new ones. I suggest you have a notebook, app, something that you can carry with you at all times. You need to be able and capture your thoughts on the fly at all times. Author John Steinbeck said,

“Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.”

You handle your ideas by writing them down and collecting them. You cannot deal with an idea that you do not remember. So keep a file of your ideas. Break them into subjects, topics, issues, that you are thinking about. Always have a way of collecting your ideas. I use a computer program called SPRINGPAD to collect ALL my ideas. It syncs with my iphone & ipad, and is web based. I categorize my ideas into subjects and collect them at all times. It takes much discipline but the reward of a better future and more opportunity is worth it. The difference between successful people and unsuccessful people is their ability to act on great ideas. But you cannot be successful with great ideas if you forget them.

So what are you doing to collect your ideas? Never let the potential of an idea escape you and get away. You must capture your thoughts and write them down if you are going to get amazing ideas that will change the course of your life and others! My system to collect ideas was birthed out of frustration of forgetting all the great ideas I was having each day. I got so mad that I couldn’t remember half of them that I decided to do something about it. I started to collect my ideas and now it has become one of the most important things I do! I now remember my ideas and go through the powerful process of writing them down. There is something special that happens when you take a floating idea in your mind and write it down. It becomes a real idea with meaning not just an obscure thought floating in your mind. You will be amazed at the power of writing your ideas down! Give it a try…starting today!

Now I want to talk about what to do after you take the time to think and collect your ideas. Remember you have to write down your ideas so you don’t forget them. Earl Nightingale said,

“Ideas are elusive, slippery things. Best to keep a pad of paper and a pencil at your bedside, so you can stab them during the night before they get away.”

After an idea pops into our mind and we write it down so we do not forget it we must let the idea marinate. Ideas are like seeds of potential but they need to be watered and nurtured. Most great ideas don’t start off as great ideas they start off as a simple idea that marinates into something amazing. However, if we don’t let ideas marinate they will not grow into great ideas. Many times ideas die because we don’t take the time to let them grow. Marinating our thoughts is about letting them get better and grow into something great! Victor Hugo said,

“All the forces in the world are not so powerful as an idea whose time has come.”

Ideas can get better over time if we allow them to grow in our mind. Ideas need to go through a process of birthing in order for them to come to life. Just like a baby forms in the mother’s womb for a period of time so our ideas need to go through the birthing process. Rarely does an idea come fully packaged with the details. However, as we allow the ideas to grow and marinate over time they are get what they need in order to survive. Do not be discouraged if incomplete ideas come to you, that is normal. Take the time to allow your ideas to get better over time. When an idea comes into our awareness now we can begin to grow the idea into something great, but it takes time. We must be patient with ideas. Many people become discouraged too quickly and give up on their ideas before they reach full maturity.

So how do you marinate your ideas? How do you allow your idea to grow? The answer: you have to spend time reflecting and adding to the idea daily. As an idea comes into your conscious awareness now you need to begin to spend time with the idea. Spend time jotting down new ideas, research information about your current idea, spend time fleshing out the idea. You need to have a green room for your thoughts a place and time where you can nurture your thoughts. For me, I spend time thinking, write down my thoughts, and then I spend a lot of time playing with the idea. By playing I mean I begin to figure out how the idea can become a reality. Many times I use Mind Mapping to play with my ideas. Swami Vivekananda said,

“Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life – think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success.”

I love to cook and really love to eat. One of the techniques I have learned over the years is the process of marinating. Marinating meat for example transforms the flavor of the meat into something amazing. But you have to take the time to prep the marinade, let it soak for hours if not days in order for it to be the best it can be. Our ideas have to incubate and grow over time. So the lesson for today is…

Lesson #3 – Let Your Ideas Marinate

 Ideas will change the course of your life…that is if you act on them. Ideas thought about, collected, and marinated do nothing if no action is attached to them. Ideas on their own are meaningless unless they become a reality by living them out. Many people have great ideas, but they fail to implement them and execute them. Ralph Waldo Emerson said,

“An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory.”

We can’t let our ideas marinate to the point of spoiling. There is a shelf-life to ideas if not acted on. Everyone has ideas, not many act on their ideas. The difference between the successful and the unsuccessful is their ability to act on great ideas. French Playwright Molier said,

“Men Are All Alike In Their Promises. It Is Only In Their Deeds That They Differ.”

Turning ideas into action is the hard part of the idea process. It is where you have to step out and GO. If you sit on an idea for too long you will squash it. So how do you turn ideas into action? You have to trust your ideas. This may seem simple, but you have to believe in your ideas or you will never step out and do them. No one ever truly knows if their idea will work on the front end. It is not until we step out and act that we know if the idea will work.

A few years ago I was reading Dave Ramsey’s book EntreLeadership. In it he mentioned everyone should have multiple streams of income by making money at things you love to do. So I began to think about what I love to do that I could make money doing. Well I had an idea pop into my mind (because I spent time thinking). I have always loved painting artwork over the years and would even make all my friends that came over to our house paint a landscape as I walked them through it. I literally instructed  9 friends over the years in my garage on how to paint. So I starting thinking about how to turn that into an opportunity to make money. Well, I figured out a way to provide art classes with all the material provided for people to walk in to a class, have everything they need ready to go and paint a 16×20 landscape from beginning to end in 2 hours. Now over 2 years later I have had over 80 people take my art classes. It has been a blast doing what I love to do and making money at it! I have also made online video lessons on how to paint and sold my artwork in shows, fairs, etc… None of this would have happened without thinking of the idea and then committing to it. I didn’t know if anyone would take my art class when I made the flyer and posted it on my Facebook account. As a matter of fact the night I came up with the idea I made a flyer, priced out the stuff, and put it out there with a date I had picked. Did I know all the details…NOPE! I just knew I had a great idea. I figured if people sign up I will figure out the rest…and I did! My art classes are a blast and everyone has incredible things to say afterwards…THEY LOVE IT! Pretty good idea I’d say. The point is…I had to step out and act on the idea or it would have done nothing expect float in my mind, on paper, and marinated to death.

What ideas do you have that you need to believe in and commit to? What are you doing to step out and simply go with your ideas? Of course it is going to take faith to act on an idea that has either never been done or at least never been done by you. It wouldn’t be a great idea if you knew exactly what will happen. In order for it to be a great idea it takes an element of the unknown, but you’ll never know the sweet taste of success if you don’t step out and put yourself out there. Don’t be afraid to fail, failure is just a learning lesson on how to not do it next time. The road to success if paved with failure. Failure is simply a part of learning. Many of your ideas will fail at first, but that is how you refine them and make them better!

So act NOW! Don’t get destroyed by the law of diminishing intent which says, “The longer you wait to do something you should do now, the greater the odds are you will never actually do it.” Don’t live your life by waiting to live your life. Step out and GO!

A real decision is measured by the fact that you’ve taken a new action. If there’s no action, you haven’t truly decided.
~ Tony Robbins ~

Lesson #4 – Act On Your Ideas