4 Tricks to Come Up With New Ideas

One of the biggest parts of being successful is coming up with new ideas.

This doesn’t just apply to entrepreneurs, although it is vital for them, it applies to all aspects of life.  Thinking of date ideas, coming up with ways to be more productive at work, or brainstorming how to take your start-up to the next phase, idea-making is an essential aspect of life.

In this article, I will be going over some of the best tips and tricks to come up with new ideas.

Isolate Yourself to a Few Minutes of Thinking Time Each Day

I have come up with some of my best ideas this way. This can be done in a variety of ways.  Some of my personal favorites are committing myself to writing in my journal every evening, spending 20 minutes in the morning praying and meditating, or going for a walk without headphones in.

The reason this is so effective is because we live in a society where there is constant action. Constant noise. Constant distractions.  No wonder silence seems foreign to us! You would be surprised how many great people attribute their success to this one trick.  As Tim Ferriss says, “99% of the successful people I know habitually spend at least 20 minutes a day to some form of quite time or meditation.”

If you find it hard to carve out a specific time each day, use a figurative time instead of a “clock” time.  Although “7PM Meditation” is the better approach, “After Dinner Meditation” works too.  Don’t skip this step if you have issues with time commitments. Find a way!

Write Down EVERYTHING

Now, when I say “EVERYTHING” I don’t mean literally every word that pops into your mind while brainstorming.  “Everything” is more targeted to writing down each individual idea, thought, or concept that comes to you throughout your day.

I say everything because I don’t want you to limit yourself in the ideas that come to you.  For some of you, the reason you are struggling to come up with ideas is because your brain has formed a habit of shooting down your own ideas before they have a chance to develop.  If you think about the idea of starting McDonald’s, write it down even though its been done before, because that will give you the opportunity to think about ways to make it better!

If you are a songwriter, write down lyrics to your favorite songs, even if you can’t use those exact phrases, you might come up with a unique 2nd verse, and then redevelop a new song entirely. As the great artist Pablo Picasso once said,

“Good artists copy, great artists steal.”

I personally use two methods to write down my ideas.  If I think of them during my thinking time, I write them down in my journal.  If it is any other time, I don’t have my journal around so I have a file on my phone that I record all my ideas and thoughts.  I highly recommend using and downloading the app Evernote.

Immerse Yourself in “Idea World”

The easiest way to cultivate your mind to coming up with new ideas is to actually look at other people’s ideas!  Just like how the greatest way to become a sculptor is to look at as many other sculptures as possible, the best way to become an idea-generator is to look at other people’s ideas!

An easy tip to implement this trick is to find resources and platforms that people in your industry collaborate.  If you are an entrepreneur looking for business ideas, watch ABC’s Shark Tank!   If you are a musician, go to some local jam sessions! If you are someone trying to climb the corporate ladder in your company, attend some networking events and seminars!  If your reading this article, I know another good resource for you would be to sign up for our community’s Online Growth Systems Newsletter, where we discuss good ideas like this and network with the world’s greatest entrepreneurs and business people! (Visit the homepage to sign up.)

“Whatever your mind consumes, your mind will produce.” -Dick Polipnick

Reward Yourself with Action

The best way to get attain the “idea generating mindset” and come up with new ideas is to reward your subconscious mind for coming up with those ideas.  Your subconscious mind can either be your slave, or your master.  Which is your mind right now?  By reading this article, I know that you are the kind of person who is the master of your mind, or you soon will be.

Think of conditioning your mind like training a dog.  If you want to train your mind to come up with ideas, it is very similar to the process of teaching your dog to do tricks.  The best dog trainers in the world all agree that rewarding your dog for performing a trick right is much more beneficial than disciplining your dog for doing the trick wrong.  Why?… (Scroll to continue reading)

Your brain releases a chemical called dopamine when you accomplish a goal or achieve something.  Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that helps control the brain’s reward and pleasure centers.  Dopamine also helps regulate movement and emotional responses, and it enables us not only to see rewards, but to take action to move toward them.  It is a natural drug that your body produces to promote you to do things that make you feel good.  It is what causes your sense of accomplishment when you draw a checkmark in a box on your to-do list.

You want your brain to get dopamine after coming up with ideas, so that your brain will crave the dopamine reward, and hence more easily come up with ideas in the future.  Its like bribing! The way you get your brain to release dopamine, is to do something worth “feeling that sense of accomplishment.”

Lets think about that for a moment, what physical “reward” would logically come after coming up with an idea?  Taking action towards making those ideas a reality!!!

Conclusion

If you implement these 4 tricks into your idea generation, you are guaranteed to see results!  If you have the privilege to be in our Online Growth Systems Newsletter, send me an email (by responding to the newsletter email) and tell me how these tips and tricks have helped you come up with new ideas!  I would love to share them with our community! 🙂

If you are serious about personal growth, I highly recommend watching my YouTube video on it.  You can find it on my channel by clicking the “Videos” tab on this website.

Thanks for reading! 🙂