How to have great ideas

Many people need idea therapy. Not so that they can come up with great ideas right this second (although maybe you will) but so that people can come up with ideas when they need them.
Here are some tips how you can exercise your idea brain:

Read every day
Ideas won’t just come to you out of the blue. Expose yourself to new information by reading from several books on many different topics.

List childhood passions
Dig up the interests you used to have. These passions can cross-fertilize and mate with each other to provide your next set of passions and ideas.

Be a transmitter
Make sure the other parts of your life are in balance: physical, spiritual, emotional and mental. This will open you up and allow great ideas to flow through you.

Activate another part of your brain
Write, draw, sing, paint and create. Stimulating one part of your brain will improve the rest.  

No pressure
Give yourself permission to come up with bad ideas. Not every seed you plant will blossom into a beautiful flower. But none will if you don't keep spreading the seeds.

Routines (or not)
Most people wait until they feel motivated. But motivation doesn't come unless invited. So establish a routine where you set the stage for creativity and get to work.

Write down ten ideas
Just like biceps or hamstrings, the idea muscle needs exercise. Else it will atrophy. Make it strong by making it sweat every day.

Be healthy
Your body needs to have oxygen and blood flowing properly to your brain to come up with ideas. So eat, sleep and move healthy.

Cut out negative people
They will turn your ideas into vomit before the words even leave your mouth.

Be grateful
Don’t think “I MUST come up with a million dollar idea right now!” Fear and scarcity will rot your brain. But gratitude will take you to a place where your ideas create abundance for the world.

Read the full article on how to become an idea machine here.