Chart Your Course

Image courtesy of romanlily

Imagination that doesn’t get used begins to fade away.  Eventually it may fail to produce many original or creative thoughts, or your imagination feel that it can only safely come out to play during your dreams

Do you want your imagination to work for you?  Yes! Then it needs to know that it is being taken seriously.  You’ve got to show it you are paying attention.

I believe your mind is more open to creative imagination, and apt to give you those million dollar ideas, if it knows that you will take them seriously. One sure fire way to stimulate your imagination, is to keep an idea journal.

Your idea journal really  doesn’t have to be fancy, in fact, it could be as simple as a spiral-bound notebook.  However, writing down my ideas in a beautiful black leather bound journal seems to communicate to my subconscious mind that “your ideas are important enough to me to not go in any old notebook.  They are going right here in my book that will last for centuries.”

The ideas I capture in my idea journal almost immediately seem like they are more of a reality.  So be sure to transfer any of those ideas contained on floating pieces of paper, or a napkin to your permanent journal.

How to Use Your Idea Journal

1. Use your idea journal in a way that works for you.  Some people start at page one filling-up one page after another.  Personally, for me that was to frustrating.  I couldn’t find the idea when I wanted to refer to it later.  So I numbered my pages and divided it into sections.  Ideas related to business ideas go in one, ideas related to my family go in another, etc.
2. Ask yourself questions.  Place a question at the top of a page.  Then let your imagination work on a solution. When ideas come I write them down on the page. This method never fails to stimulate my problem solving abilities.
3. Carry your idea journal with you everywhere.  Sometimes it may just be unrealistic to have it with you.  So if you are stuck somewhere without it, your job it to first commit all your ideas to any paper that you have handy.  Carrying 3 x 5″ cards with you is often the perfect substitute.  Once you get back home make sure those ideas make it to your journal.
4. Don’t judge the ideas.  Write down the ideas as they come to you.  They may not appear like a great idea now, but that idea when combined with something else may make it a winning idea.
5. Don’t use a pens that bleed, or fades.
6. Write your name, address, and phone number in the front cover and you may want offer a reward for it’s return if it is lost.

What To Keep in Your Journal

Keep track of those things that capture your imagination – those things that give you inspiration, and those things that you notice. Basically, any idea, that you get can be written down in your idea journal.  Some of them will be huge, and some of them almost insignificant.  For example:

• Business ideas.
• Product ideas.
• Sketches of paintings.
• Ideas for blog posts.
• Ideas of books.
• Ideas on how to more effectively communicate with someone.
• Record the things you’re grateful for.
• Titles for books.
• Sketches, or story-boards.
• Character ideas.
• Ideas on how to improve your home.
• Plants you want to plant in your yard.

You never know what you will learn until you start paying attention.  You may soon discover ideas you never knew you were capable of producing.

How are you going to capture your next big idea?

• Do you use an idea journal?
• What have you found works well for you?

Image Courtesy of Mavens

Imagination and creativity go hand-in-hand.  By breaking down the words creativity and imagination we can gain a great understanding of how closely connected they are.

Imagination

• image – to form a mental picture
• ate – join
• ion – action

So we can see that imagination is an action.  It’s the act of forming a mental picture and is not the ability to recall a mental picture.

Creativity

• create –  to evolve something from one’s own thoughts or imagination, such as creating a work of art or an invention.
• ity – a suffix expressing a state or condition

So creativity is the ability to express what one sees with their own thoughts or imagination.  And imagination is a skill that helps to bring things into existence.

If imagination is the skill that helps to bring the things we create into existence and creativity is the ability to express what one sees with their own thoughts or imagination then one can’t really exist without the other.

Imagination and creativity are at work when new inventions are created, when new breakthroughs in science are discovered (see science is imagination), when new clothing lines are created, when new pieces of music are created, and when new recipes are served up.

So pay attention to those images that pop into your head.  Your imagination just may be trying creatively solve a problem.

• What are they telling you?
• How can you bring that image forth from your imagination and create something that will make a difference?

Image Courtesy of Oberazzi

Creative questions are the imagination’s appetizer. They wet your brains palette and they stimulate creativity.

If you want your imagination to kick-in and reveal that next great idea you’ve got to get your brain to work on it. The best way to do that is to ask it questions.

You see, your brain is already asking itself questions all day long as it tries to make sense of what is going on around us. So trick your brain into working for our benefit, rather than against it.

When you want a solution to something, when you want to get your creative juices going don’t just make a wish, ask a question.

For example, rather that saying, “I wish I could go to Hawaii,” ask “How Can I Spend a Week in Hawaii this year and get paid for it?” Then pay attention to the answers you get (more about that tomorrow).

Here’s a list of ways you can start your questions that stimulate creative thinking:

• How can I…
• What can I do to…
• How can I learn…
• How can I meet…
• What action can I take that will…
• Where can I find the information I need to…
• Who can help me…

Do you ask yourself the right questions?

Courtesy of Andrew McConnochie

Your imagination is very likely starving, and in Manage Your Imagination to Increase Your Success I promised to share some tips, insight, and resources on what to feed your imagination. Today, is the first article in that series.

We start out with a personal story…

Looking for deer has become a ritual on the way home from Grandmas This past Easter Sunday was no different and we found ourselves driving next to the orchard we frequently saw deer in.  Suddenly I caught a glimpse of a magnificent building sitting upon the hill.  I thought, “Wow -- what is that building that is glowing like a beacon on the hill?”  It was unexpected, yet it shouldn’t have been.

As it turned out it was a Mormon temple that I had passed probably hundreds of  times, but it was if I as seeing it for the very first time.

I’d seen it at different angles, and from different locations, and I should have seen it from this particular angle before -- but I had always been busy looking for the glow of the deer’s eyes, and not really taking time to pay attention to the things above my typical field of view.

How often have you walked past somethings that warrants a little attention and ignored it? Doing so doesn’t serve you and it starves your imagination.

My husband, some friends, and I went on a cruise this past summer.  We arrived back in port with quite a few hours to spare and decided to spend the time walking around San Diego and taking in the sights.

As we walked I photographed.  I captured, among other things, the bark on trees, the interesting shape of the tree’s roots, the texture of the sidewalks, the cute bird that visited us for lunch, and flowers from unique angles.

My friend turned to me and said, ” Leisa, I can tell you are an artist.  You notice things that I just tend to walk by.  I love seeing how you see the world!”

I once heard it said that artists notice things that others don’t.

And, if you’ve seen the movie August Rush you’ll understand what I mean when I say that musicians often hear music that goes unnoticed by the general public.

Here’s a couple of  clips,  just in case you haven’t seen it:
(and if you haven’t I highly recommend you do)

So today’s assignment for feeding and managing your imagination is to take  your camera and look for the interesting things you pass every day. This time look at it with new eyes! Then photograph and capture them. And feel free to include a link below to anything interesting you happen to notice.

Try to capture the interesting textures, the way the shadows dance upon the wall, and those things that others often don’t notice.

Pay attention to life’s rhythms!