Think Naps and Brain Lightning

reposted 5-7-2011

Thursday, May 7th, 2009

Every week brings me lots of new ideas. Some are related to existing concepts, some are for other people, some are ridiculous, and some are completely new.

I love the line from Hook when Smee says to Captain Hook, “Sir, I’ve just had an apostrophe!”

“I believe you mean an epiphany.”

“Lightning has struck my brain!”

“That must have hurt.” (Note: He is only correct if you sit up in, and fall out of, bed.)

I find I use creativity in several ways. One way is helping others enhance their own ideas. The second way is enhancing my ideas. The third way is coming up with totally new ideas (New to me, that is.)

Here’s the tricky part for me: There’s no way to force creativity! I’ve wanted to be a creative problem-solver for years, but there were certain conditions that had to be met in each realm I wanted to operate before that could happen.

Here are the conditions as I understand them today.

A.) Desire and Clarity: For a long time now, one of my goals has been to run my own business. Trouble was, I hated marketing. I mean, I didn’t get bloody-eyed and screamy about it, but was distasteful, a pain in the neck, and I wanted nothing more than to ignore it and focus on what my business was REALLY about. Riiiiight. It took WAY longer than it ‘should have’ for me to realize that Business Is Marketing, and longer still to accept that truth emotionally.

Once it clicked (what Havi Brooks on her blog calls ‘hot buttered insights’), I was able to dive in to the necessary learning with gusto. It was only at that point that I made the switch from a ‘technician’ mindset (per E-Myth Revisited) to a ‘business owner’ mindset. I’m sure I have many more lessons to learn on these lines.

B.) Expertise/Experience: Having gusto didn’t make me magically good at anything, unfortunately! I recently tallied up the cost of my marketing education, and I’ve now spent over $45,000 learning marketing. WHEW. And it’s been strung out over more years than it needed to be, due to my refusal to get with the program. I was spending money on marketing even before I liked it, but the money wasn’t nearly as well spent as my marketing money is now.

I realized that I wanted to be great at creating deals, joint venture ideas, and marketing campaigns. So I started looking for mentors who amazed my with their skill in these areas. I found one in my long-time friend Mark Buckman, and went to work for him part-time so I could get in his head. I learned SO MUCH from him in the 9 months I worked at his building company. I found that by the end of that period, my brain was firing in cool new ways.

C.) Natural Opportunity: Creativity works best when you don’t hamper it or force it into a box. My creativity loves to come out and play when I lie down to sleep, so I just try to make sure I have a little extra time for the “Brain Lightning.” If I’m in a period when I need lots of new insights, that means “Think Naps.” A Think Nap is restful, yes, but the point isn’t to fall asleep. The point is to relax my brain and let the Brain Lightning happen, so I don’t stay up waaaay too late writing stuff down (or worse yet, ignoring the Brain Lightning entirely!)

D.) Effective Action Levers: My creativity gets pouty and childish when I don’t indulge it and show it the results of its hard work. If I don’t actually write down the ideas I get, the Brain Lightning refuses to show up again until I’ve done penance. Writing down ideas is important, because it’s a form of action. I get confused, depressed, and annoyed when I stay on the same idea for a long period of time. If I don’t actually take action on my ideas, I start feeling useless!

I use a few tools to collect ideas:

1.) Notebook. Simple enough, I keep it by the bed and in my carry-on, and transfer everything to the PC once I’m back ‘at work’. I also put diagrams in the notebook.

2.) Smartphone. I use this the same way, minus diagrams.

3. www.rememberthemilk.com – this is great for any idea that has pre-defined action steps. I type them up and don’t bother putting priorities or due dates on them. I’ll get around to them once it’s time, and they’ll never get lost.

4. Google Docs – I have one big file with all my business-related ideas. No real formatting, no real order to it, all this has going for it is thoroughness. As long as I describe each idea adequately, I can search for it even if the document is too big to glance over.

Anyway, that’s how I keep my Brain Lightning at a steady 5,000 kilovolts!

Jeremy