Everything you will do and become in life starts with an idea. We can say your life is a reflection of the ideas you have been executing on. You must become an idea machine if you are going to live life to your fullest potential. You also need it to become the extraordinary woman you have always dreamed of.
Being an idea machine doesn’t mean becoming a robot that churns out an extraordinary idea every time it’s switched on. Although, it might feel magical to people who find it less easy to come up with ideas like you do. Being an idea machine means being able to generate ideas when you need them. These can be the good, the bad, and the ugly that you can sort through. The skill and the ideas will help you achieve success at anything and everything.
All too often, we do not come up with ideas unless something forces us to. We wait till something has gone wrong before we start looking for how to fix it. For example, except we face a challenge in our relationship, we do not think of how to make it better. Also, we don’t do anything until our businesses are failing or profits are sinking. When there’s no fear of bankruptcy, we do not think of ways to make more money or build a risk-averse system.
I will come to how to become an idea machine shortly. But waiting till things go wrong is a terrible way to live. It is something you should stop doing as soon as possible. Instead, you should start a daily idea generation routine that helps you get better ideas and improve your life. You can do this before bed or upon waking up.
When you’re an ideas machine, it’s like you foresee things. You shape your mind to constantly be in that place where you come up with a great idea even when you don’t need it. When you hit a wall, you immediately come up with several ideas on how to scale through. Even if a lot of it may be bad ideas, you’ll still come up with them. You don’t strike people as clueless.
This can be very helpful in many aspects of your life. For business people, being an idea machine helps their businesses perform at optimal levels. They can build systems that to help them mitigate risks. However, being an idea machine can be helpful in many other ways than in businesses.
As James Altucher says, “ideas are the currency of life.” Being full of ideas makes you valuable. People naturally turn to you for solutions. Aside from that, you have better relationship experiences. You also have better work experiences when you’re able to come up with ideas. You save more time and buy yourself financial freedom with ideas. You’re able to pick yourself up from challenges faster when you are an idea machine. You literally become more successful in every aspect of your life.
Tips On How To Become an Idea Machine
1. Maintain a Positive Attitude
One of the things that inhibit people from creating ideas is fear and lack of confidence. If you’re hoping to become an idea machine, then you have to believe in your ability to do so. You have to acknowledge that you can create ideas consistently. You don’t have to be Einstein, Maya Angelou, or Da Vinci before becoming an idea machine. Coming up with beautiful, terrific ideas involves believing positive things about yourself. You have to think the best about your abilities.
There are two types of people who would never really become an idea machine. First are people who say things like “someone else has said this or done this, why should I?”. The second group is full of people who think, “I don’t believe I can come up with good ideas that are as good as Z’s.”
It would help if you didn’t bother about getting credit for your ideas or not. Don’t be reluctant to share your ideas because of the fear of rejection. Yes, being applauded is sexy and sweet. Being popular is fulfilling. But watching yourself create those ideas is the most beautiful and enthralling thing.
2. Embrace Your Imperfection
There’s no assurance that every idea you come up with will be great. Yes, we all want to create that big idea that will make us famous and respected. We forget that our perfection lies in our imperfections. So, we place our expectations so high and beat ourselves up when we don’t meet them, thinking, “we’re not worth it.”
More often, this comes from comparison. Stop thinking or telling yourself things like, “I’ll never be as good as the male folks in doing ABC.” “I’m not that exceptional. I’d rather leave it to X since I always mess up.” or “I’d rather not say anything than let Y put my idea down.” We chase perfection way too much, and society pressures us too. But, how do you embrace your imperfection and become an idea machine?
The first thing you need to do is acknowledge that nothing is perfect. Embracing your imperfection except one is not and does not have to be perfect. Since no one is perfect, your ideas don’t have to be too. Give yourself the liberty to churn out ideas without making what people think about those ideas affect your self-belief and confidence. When you start doing this and stop thinking in terms of perfection, you’ll discover an endless stream of inspiration resides in you. Allow your ideas to flow.
3. Condition Your Mind
Do you have enough to start generating ideas? Maybe not! You don’t have to. Just get into learning and generating ideas. Condition your mind to get into the process and come up with different ideas. One part of it is what we have covered in the previous point. The other part is beyond the scope of this post. But it involves exposing yourself to the right content. Exposure is critical for creativity.
Frequently, we spend hours waiting for inspiration to hit us from somewhere. Other times we’re poring over countless research materials looking for inspiration. We even look towards other people to come up with ideas for us. But the inspiration you’re waiting on comes when you condition your mind to do the work. Sometimes, it comes only after you have spent time trying to generate ideas.
When I started this blog, whenever I sat to write, my heart would begin to skip. I had the passion and experience I needed. But getting that first post seemed challenging. I started to wonder if I would ever write enough when I’m yet to write the first word. This is true for most of you reading this too. You’re nervous about how it’ll end when you’re yet to begin.
The truth is, you’d feel a lot better when you make little progress than when you don’t start at all. Give yourself the freedom to come up with ideas. You can come up with ideas, then follow up with reading or finding resources later that’ll help you execute those ideas. Executing is essential as all the ideas in this world will do you no good if you don’t implement them. As you carry them out, you will also see your life transform.
One quote that has helped me is that “world-changing ideas generally evolve as slow hunches rather than sudden breakthroughs.” You have to accept that you’re enough to create. Get exposure by all means too. By doing this, you’re liberated to come up with ideas on the go. And no! Your idea doesn’t always have to be an original idea.
4. Make Idea Generation a Routine
Becoming an idea machine doesn’t happen in a day. It takes consistent effort. While some people say routine is an enemy of creativity, routine helps you to be creative on auto-pilot. As Ann Hadley put it (concerning creative writing), “many of the world’s most brilliant writers stressed regular routines and schedules for writing. Maya Angelou, Ernest Hemingway, Charles Dickens, and Oliver Sacks kept regular hours to cultivate creative rhythms.”
Yes, one good idea can bring about a turning point in your life. But you might need to generate and execute on several dozens to get there. Who becomes a good plant mom by watering their plants occasionally? No one. You have to nurture anything you want to blossom. And your idea muscles are no exception. Making a routine out of idea generation will help you grow and strengthen your idea muscle.
A considerable part of building your idea muscle rests on commitment. That is, showing up every day. There is no better way to get good at cooking than cooking regularly. There’s no way better way to become a better lover than showing love regularly. In the same way, there is no better way to become an idea machine than generating ideas every day.
Commit to a routine of coming up with a minimum of ten ideas every day. You should push for twenty great ideas. Try to come up with helpful Ideas on random things. It does not have to be an incredibly brilliant idea. Just come up with ideas. For example, “10 things I don’t like about my community.” “10 things I’d like to do before the end of the year.” “10 things I’ll do to make myself happy.” “20 ways to make more money.” “20 things I’ll do to make me a better lover.”
The list is endless. Come up with a listicle topic and fill it up with ideas. Whether it is convenient or not, make committed efforts to stick to this routine. You’ll see how much your idea generation ability will develop when you learn to commit to generating regularly. A word of caution: While you need to push for twenty ideas to build your idea muscle, do not apply too much pressure. Like all other muscles, your idea muscle will thank you if you learn to rest and continue after.
5. Trust Your Intuition
Intuition is seeing with the soul” — Dean Koontz.
Intuition is one of the greatest assets you have, yet it’s one of the most challenging to use. Your intuition whispers ideas to you every time. But you’re likely quick to shut it out and not succumb. Many of us have created a barrier in our minds with the words, “what will people think?” And As Roy Bennett says, “you will never follow your inner voice until you clear up the doubts in your mind.”
Generating ideas intuitively happens in silence, almost unrecognisable. For example, I get tons of ideas for my blog posts that I often don’t know their origins. They come in a rush, and I write them down without judging those ideas. I let them flow out. In the end, I edit or sort those ideas. That’s what intuitive idea generation is about— it starts from a place of non-judgement and submission. Just express, rather than suppressing whatever comes to your mind.
Meditation, mindfulness, and yoga help you to free up your mind. By freeing up your mind, you allow ideas to flow easily. You can also practice dream journaling, doodling, and freewriting as ways to train yourself to trust your intuition. You’d be surprised how many good ideas you can generate when you trust your guts.
6. Connect Unrelated Dots
James Altucher calls this idea sex. It involves merging different ideas to form a better one. This involves a high level of liberation. Break the rules. Think inside the box and flip it. For example, think of a way you were able to persuade someone to help you with an assignment back in school or at work and connect it with things you’ve learnt about sales persuasion to come up with a better persuasion technique.
Or think about what aspect of home management you can bring into your work. Or what part of your formal setting can help your relationship. When you do this, you unleash more mind-blowing, relatable, laudable and exciting ideas.
7. Write Down Your Ideas
This point is so crucial it deserves to be on its own. Writing is a psychoneuromotor activity. This means your learning and retention are tripled when you write things down. Writing ideas down means you learn the process faster and remember your ideas more. And you can easily make needed connections because – subconsciously or not – your thoughts are burned into your ‘system.’
As you write your ideas, don’t discriminate between what’s a brilliant idea and a bad one. Your idea muscle needs all of them to grow. You can sort them out when it comes to time to choose which ones you’ll execute on.
You can write ideas on worthless papers or a cheap notebook such as a waiter’s pad. The rationale behind this is that we often place too much value on the expensive notepads. We often think to ourselves, “anything that goes on it has to be perfect.” But it doesn’t. So, by writing on a cheap notebook or a worthless, rough paper, you allow yourself to make mistakes and enjoy the idea generation process.
I would advise you to write them down somewhere you can always refer to them and even see you progress over time. But whatever you do, and wherever you choose to document your ideas, just write!
The thing about being an idea machine is not that you come up with good ideas all the time. It just means that you’re capable of coming up with solutions to problems faster. And if you can come up with new ideas to solve your problems, you can achieve anything. You’ll only need to learn to execute your ideas. So don’t be afraid to come up with ideas. It doesn’t matter whether they’re good or bad ideas. Don’t also be scared of testing your ideas and failing. When you fail fast, you improve faster.
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