Tag: Michael Michalko

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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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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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What tools do you have in your ideas toolbox?

Toolbox.com
Toolbox.com (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If you had to flee your country in the dead of the night to make a new life elsewhere, what idea generation techniques would you want to have with you?

I suppose I’ve been thinking about that question not because I feel under threat in the country am living in but because the question sharply focuses on which idea generation tools haved worked so effectively for me and others.

What idea generation techniques have worked best for you? Continue reading “What tools do you have in your ideas toolbox?”

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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”