Tag: creativity

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Guest Post: How to get your subconscious mind working on a problem

Highly acclaimed and renown creativity expert writes for Idea Accelerator

By Michael Michalko

Michael Michalko is one of the most highly acclaimed creativity experts in the world and author of the best sellers Thinkertoys (A Handbook of Business Creativity), ThinkPak (A Brainstorming Card Deck), and Cracking Creativity (The Secrets Of Creative Genius).
Michael Michalko is one of the most highly acclaimed creativity experts in the world and author of the best sellers Thinkertoys (A Handbook of Business Creativity), ThinkPak (A Brainstorming Card Deck), Cracking Creativity (The Secrets Of Creative Genius) and Creative Thinkering (Putting Your Imagination to Work) .

Has this ever happened to you? You’re walking down the street, completely relaxed, and you are not thinking about any particular thing. Then all of a sudden the solution to a problem you’ve been working on for weeks pops into your head out of the blue. You wonder why you didn’t think of it before.You’ve experienced your subconscious mind at work. Your subconscious mind will continue to work on a problem long after you leave it.

This is known as incubating the problem. Many idea people report that their best ideas come when they are not thinking about their problem. Fehr, the French scientist, said he observed that in his lifetime practically all good ideas came to him when he was not working on a problem or even thinking about a problem, and that most of his contemporaries make their discoveries in the same way. When Thomas Edison was stonewalled by a problem, he would lie down and take a nap and allow his subconscious mind to work on it.

As a simple experiment, write the alphabet vertically on a piece of paper. Now write a sentence vertically next to the alphabet, stopping with whatever letter parallels Z. Now, you have a row of initials. Next, think of as many famous people as you can (real or fictional) for each set of initials in 10 minutes. If you couldn’t come up with some names but then suddenly thought of them while you were working on other initials, you experienced your subconscious mind at work.

An easy way to communicate with your subconscious mind and get it working for you to solve a problem is to write a letter to yourself. The guidelines are: Continue reading “Guest Post: How to get your subconscious mind working on a problem”

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Ugly moods ditched with emotional makeover that turns into fast and furious creative jam

_Emotions 05
_Emotions 05 (Photo credit: SeRGioSVoX)

I don’t know about you but when I get into a negative mood I find it hard to come up with new ideas or be creative. If you look at the research that’s been done into this, it’s quite confusing.

Some researchers have found that people need to get themselves into a more resourceful and uplifting mood before they are able to feel creative and produce ideas. Continue reading “Ugly moods ditched with emotional makeover that turns into fast and furious creative jam”

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How do you coax your thoughts to pair up, make love and spark a new idea?

Jazz Blues Fusion (album)
Jazz Blues Fusion (album) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

On Monday morning I stopped at the traffic lights and a man came over to my car and pushed a one-page flyer through the slit in the top of my window.

I glanced at the flyer which was advertising a service to dog owners. The service includes transporting dogs to and from your vet, updating inoculations, rabies inoculation, defleeing and deworming.

The owner of this service has combined dog care with transport to come up with the idea for a mobile dog service. Continue reading “How do you coax your thoughts to pair up, make love and spark a new idea?”

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Have you figured out your life’s purpose?

Creativity
Creativity (Photo credit: Mediocre2010)

A few years ago I had reached a point where I was deeply unhappy where I was going in life. We all know that we are not here for long and I decided once and for all to figure out exactly what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.

I started a 12-module creativity programme to explore my past experiences, what was important to me and what I wanted to do. For one of the first times in my life I carried out every suggestion or prompt in the course, missing out nothing. Continue reading “Have you figured out your life’s purpose?”

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When does a “copycat” strategy pay?

Nintendo 3DS
Nintendo 3DS (Photo credit: John.Karakatsanis)

A copycat strategy for developing products and services can be more lucrative than the original invention which sucks huge to amounts of time, energy and money.

But what exactly is an imitation or copycat strategy?

Business owners copy or imitate other companies’ products and services all the time. Some duplicate others’ products without protest from their competitors.

Continue reading “When does a “copycat” strategy pay?”

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Do these theme songs inspire you to create or make you want to vomit?

Soundtrack to your imagination
Soundtrack to your imagination (Photo credit: nerosunero)

The other day I downloaded three of my top film soundtracks from the Internet:

Start Wars Main Theme
Chariots of Fire
Rocky Balboa Theme

These were some of the form soundtracks that I’d listened to on my yellow plastic Walkman when I used to go running in the mornings.

The songs would help mask the pain on those long uphill stretches. Inspiration for when the running became tough. Continue reading “Do these theme songs inspire you to create or make you want to vomit?”

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Fun and smart ways to feel creative at no cost

The Candle Problem tests creative problem solving. How would you affix the lit candle to the wall so that it will not drip wax onto the table below. All you have is a candle, a box of thumbtacks and a book of matches? Check here for the solution.
The Candle Problem tests creative problem solving. How would you affix the lit candle to the wall so that it will not drip wax onto the table below. All you have is a candle, a box of thumbtacks and a book of matches? Check here for the solution.

An investment banker, 47, was so upset about an ongoing battle with the board of his luxury Manhattan apartment that he jumped out of the window of the seventh floor. His problems relate to his job and he and his wife’s three French poodles. Neighbours had complained about the dogs’ barking and “rambunctious, ” play in the lobby, the New York Post reported.

The jumper survived the fall when he hit a second-floor awning which broke his fall. Paramedics rushed him to the local hospital.

I bring the sleeping banker incident up as it reminds me of how often many of us end up in what we perceive as a cul de sac. In the tunnel of our own personal darkness and despair it seems that there is no end in sight. Continue reading “Fun and smart ways to feel creative at no cost”

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An innovator shows how new uses for products can open new markets

Technology developed in Africa shows how innovation can lead to new uses for products which can open new markets.

greysanatomy1A small to medium-sized company developed an x-ray scanner for detecting diamonds at mines in South Africa. Because regular checks were made the scanner had to emit minimum levels of radiation.

The innovative entrepreneurs making the scanner were not satisfied with this one market for their product. They began looking for new uses for applications for their scanner technology.

Now Lodox Systems has supplied more than 40 of their x-ray scanners to hospitals in South Africa and around the world. Their Xmplar-dr scanner takes 13 seconds to produce a full body overview of injuries and foreign bodies (such as bullets in gunshot victims). Continue reading “An innovator shows how new uses for products can open new markets”

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Recording tools for capturing ideas on the run

English: Olympus Digital Voice Recorder
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Ideas have the potential to energise, enrich and even change our lives.

The unlimited treasure of the human imagination has the capacity to transform lives, to create new possibilities for working, living and playing. When we actively engage in producing ideas we begin to awaken within us thoughts from our unconscious. These thoughts may come to us in fragments, brief flashes of inspiration or in whole images that provide an almost perfect or complete blueprint for the way forward. Continue reading “Recording tools for capturing ideas on the run”

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Ignore your pie-in-the-sky thinking if you want but don’t cry when your competitors steal a scrumptious slice of your market

Why has pie-in-the-sky thinking got such a bad rap?
Why has pie-in-the-sky thinking got such a bad rap?

Last night while driving to a jazz club I was listening to a new Johannesburg radio station and I heard a business consultant interviewing entrepreneurs who have taken a second-hand car sounds business and through innovative ideas have made it super successful.

What stood out for me was a remark made by the wife of the husband-and-wife business partnership. She said her husband was the “pie-in-the-sky” thinker. He was the one who had come up with ideas such as to showcase a classic car from the 60s in their car sound audio fitment centre. Continue reading “Ignore your pie-in-the-sky thinking if you want but don’t cry when your competitors steal a scrumptious slice of your market”