Where to Find Your Best Ideas…

Is there a better feeling than feeling stuck on something and then getting a GREAT idea out of seemingly nowhere? I’m all for a eureka or lightbulb moment, but instead of waiting for one to come to you, it is important to make sure you’re setting yourself up for success.

Where to Find Your Best Ideas…

Guest post by Maxie McCoy

Do you ever feel like you’re just not creative? Like there’s literally not a single idea you’ve had in a while? Maybe your creativity is feeling squashed and ideas are feeling illusive. And you’re just left with meh and dull feelings.

This stinks because we need our ideas. For everything. We need them to solve really big problems and we need them to figure out the little ones, too. We need them for our work, for our projects and for our relationships. We need ideas and the creativity that brings them to life around constantly. I don’t care if it’s about a business idea, a decorating idea, or a gift idea, ideas of all kinds are so necessary.

But if you’re feeling like they’re not coming to you often or ever, I’ve got a few things that always help me when I’m feeling this way… which will hopefully help you:

You’ll find them with space: there’s a reason people always say my best ideas always come to me in the shower. Because the shower is probably the one place we’re at every day where there’s truly only our own self, our own thoughts, and zero distractions. Ideas require this lack of distraction and this space from all that is busy: our lives, our social media, our phones, our inboxes, our social lives. So if you haven’t spent some time alone (or haven’t showered in a while hehe) take your lunch without your phone, take your coffee home alone, or just do something to be alone with nothing other than your own energy and thoughts. For as much time as you can spare.

You’ll find them with people: Most of my best blog posts come from things I’ve mulled over during conversations with my girlfriends. I immediately will write down something that came up for me, an idea, and write about it later. People are amazing sparks for ideas. Find humans who talk about ideas and not people, and schedule some more time for them in your life.

You’ll find them in the layers below the layers: there’s a reason journaling a stream of consciousness is powerful. Ask yourself a question, and try writing and writing and writing (by hand) until you get down deep on some layers of yourself, of your thinking, of your own creativity where ideas are seeded. You have them. You sometimes just need to get to them. Pens can help.

You’ll find them through other ideas: not every idea has to be wildly original. Sometimes the best ideas are from seeds of other ideas of your own or other people’s attempts at something. Ideas are truly everywhere if you’re looking up and willing to iterate on the nuggets of inspiration that exist in everyday life. Don’t be scared of it. Look up. And get going.

When it comes to ideas, you’ve got them and they exist, you just have to know how to optimize for them to show up if you’re feeling dull these days. And whatever you do: always write your ideas down when they come. Often, they leave as quickly as they came. So record, record, record your ideas.

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