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Brainstorming lets loose all kinds of thoughts, ideas and fragments of information that’s bottled up in your memory banks. The term itself means to capture a free flow of thoughts and ideas.
Early in life your brain is in learning mode. Education is designed to fill your brains with all kinds of information and the means for learning more throughout your life.
I remember being a kid and many times having my brain being saturated and not being able to make sense of things. Then I was taught about outlines. Oh happy days. I could write things down in the outline format and then visually stand back as see how it all makes sense. Outlining is the same approach I use today but it only deals with the conscious and immediate knowledge my brain provides.
Brainstorming differs because it accesses the wider and deeper body of knowledge that you have already learned and encoded into your memory. With brainstorming you’re engaging in a kind of mental free association to pull out all that valuable stored information.
You may have heard of successful business groups using this technique for problem solving and generating new creative ideas. Members throw out ideas in a non judgmental environment. Out of that primordial soup, new perspectives, ideas and concepts are generated by this group effort.
If you’re looking for fresh ideas in prsuit of your success then you want to start brainstorming. Joining a mastermind group will give you a wide range of ideas. However, don’t overlook the wealth of information residing in your own brain.
Individual brainstorming is easy to do and you can start right now with these simple steps.
Free associate. Take a notebook and write down your primary concern. Sit with it for 5 – 10 minutes and write down everything that comes to mind. No judging, just write it down then get up and walk away.
Keep your notebook open to the page and every time you have another thought write it down. The idea here is that your brain is processing even when you’re not consciously thinking about it and will be sending you thoughts when you least expect them. If you don’t like to write, use any small recording device that can capture your thoughts on the spot.
Take a Shower. There seems to be something about water that releases thoughts and ideas. Research indicates that showers rank high in producing creative ideas.
Tell your brain what you want. We ask a lot of our brains but we fail miserably at telling it what we want it to do.
At night before you go to sleep talk to your brain. Tell it that you are looking for an answer or need more ideas about …. You may have to repeat the process, but eventually you will get an answer. Your answer may come in the form of a dream, a random and unexpected thought or part of some experience where in an instant you recognize it.
Reexamine those generated ideas. Some of the thoughts and ideas you generate with brainstorming may seem silly, counterintuitive or impractical. Don’t be too swift to discard them. They might just contain a viable answer you don’t recognize as yet. Reexamine them again or put them off to the side and come back later and take a second look.
Success is life is just not about what you know but being able to solve the problems life throws at you. Let you brain help you unearth the resource information stored in your memory banks.
Brainstorming lets loose all kinds of thoughts, ideas and fragments of information that’s bottled up in your memory banks. The term itself means to capture a free flow of thoughts and ideas.