Have you Had this conversation?:

you: I have a Creative block!

friend: Don’t worry it will come to you!

you: Yeah? How?

friend: It just happens!

Well done if you didn’t throw your shoe at them!

AND HERE YOU ARE! (GOOD CHOICE)

IDEA Factory

R&D for the Mind

Idea Factory is a place where you can focus your ideas, generate new ones and develop relationships and collaborate!

Why are you reading the Ideas Factory?

If You have a passion or idea that’s like a seed. This seed can turn in to a beautiful flower! You have been watering it with thought but it’s not growing (maybe it is but you can’t see it growing).

So what does my seed (idea) Need?

Over the course of this series, I will cover some options you have to keep your Creative juices flowing.

If you want to just quickly jump to a part of this post your options are below. BUT if you read it in the sequence you can ride the wave of self-inspiration whilst rehydrating!

• Get Excited not stressed (Find the BUZZ)
• Coming out of my/your shell
• What is the correct Question?
• LETS’S GET STARTED!
• Still Stuck LETS TALK!
• THE INSPIRING COACHES!

Get excited not stressed

or

Have a Brew!

Now we are all sipping at our tea i shall continue.

Ideas are exciting things until you get stressed out over them.

So how do you get past that creative block?

You do have the tools, but maybe you have so many tools in your tool kit and they are all really excited, you can’t see the wood for the trees!

So lets cut down some trees (DO NOT cut down real trees! OK!)

Find The BUZZ?

The first thing you need to ask yourself  “Was this idea really exciting me?”

Hopefully, the answer was YES YES YES! (don’t worry too much if it was not, you will get there! DID YOU HAVE A BREW?)

Over the course of this series, I will cover some options you have to keep your Creative juices flowing.

Coming out of my/your shell

Recently I went to a seminar with four coaches leading the attendees forward and “finding ourselves”.

DON’T STOP READING!

Ok you are possibly thinking “Oh God I thought this was a practical, not a spiritual blog post”, DON’T despair I am not going to tell you how to find your spirit animal or that you have to spend three days on a mountain in Tibet

HERE IS WHAT HAPPENED

We got creative! At the risk of sounding a bit Hippie (we all need a little Hippie) we found ourselves without barriers, we started to talk about our ideas and most importantly our passions

So why am I telling you this did I “find myself? Am I going to fix the world”? NO! Well, I did Find Myself but the world can wait a while!

I found that I have been caring about the wrong things on “my path to greatness”(yeah I know, so pretentious! )

I have been thinking about everyone else and what they think about me and Asking myself “what do I do to try to please them?” THIS IS THE WRONG QUESTION!

So, what is the correct Question?

Let’s Find out!

WHAT DO I NEED?

That’s It, that’s the question! Selfish right, NO. if you can’t do something for you then you will be less helpful to others! I am not saying don’t help others! Basically, if you are at your best this, in turn, will enable you to help others more.

SIDENOTE:If you really don’t care about anyone but yourself, thanks for reading and have fun in your cave. Oh and watch out for Bears!

Ok tools to make this happen:

• • Pen and Paper or Digital equivalent (just be comfortable writing with it)
  • An open mind to think about YOU!
  • Feel comfortable maybe go outside or in another room where you don’t always work.
  • If you can express your self better in another language, USE IT, this is for You no one else!
  • If you think it will help, do this with a friend or colleague, collaboration is a powerful tool!

LETS’S GET  STARTED!

Step.1

Do a Mind map/spider diagram

Put your idea (the original idea) in the middle

Now start adding around it:
“what made me(you) excited about the idea” when you first thought of it.
Just take the first 5 things for now

Step 2.

Organise these in order of importance to YOU

So, for example, my idea is “I want to help people with maturing their ideas!

Here is my list:

1. I love listening to people when they are excited about something.
2. Everyone has ideas
3. Everybody at some point gets creative block
4. When we work hard sometimes our brains, in fact, everything gets in the way!
5. When you get past a creative block you feel a lot better

WHAT NEXT?

My Idea is so open Where do I start?

Start with number 1

When I thought about this blog it was maybe the wrong format for listening!

Phhh that is a stumbling block that seems hard to get past, right?

But I had not done my mind map yet!

Ok, so I ask myself “what do I need to be able to Listen?”

Well, Listening usually happens in conversation so I need a conversation! OBVIOUS RIGHT?

QUICK TO THE BATMOBILE!

I started Talking to everyone I could find that had an Idea they were working on and talking about it.

I felt great! And I realised that I needed to write this down.

What did I find out?

Well look at my first list, just from addressing point 1 I covered point 2 additionally Point 3, It also happened to address point 4 and 5!

1. I listened
2. People had ideas and talked about them
3. Some of the ideas were not fully formed yet or they needed an angle!
4. These people do work hard and have lots of “STUFF” going on in there lives talking lead them to “finding a new angle!”
5. At the end of the conversations, I felt good, I think they felt good and the ideas moved on mine and Theirs (you are reading mine NOW! Thanks)

So how does this help you?

THIS IS IMPORTANT

Take the first thing on your list and think what do I want to do, NOT what does someone else need, just WHAT DO YOU(I) NEED?

Take that answer and do it, then come back to where you were, you should be able to move forward now! Good luck

STILL STUCK?

If you are still stuck, I highly recommend a conversation, more happens in your head when you connect with someone!

If you would like to start a conversation about your idea, get in contact with me email hidden; JavaScript is required

or connect with me on Instagram look out for #ikeepexploring

let me know “what you need”.

WHY?

Because Conversation should inspire everyone taking part! so you will inspire me and hopefully, I can inspire you!

If you need it, let’s explore!

#ikeepexploring

Inspiring coaches

This post was created because of four inspiring coaches that helped me find my passion, here are some links to them, they are worth checking out!

Kai Christen www.iomovement.org

Sina Mehl www.iomovement.org

Josh Levent www.joshlevent.com

Daniel Jordi www.leadersbridge.org