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Have a dream.
Succeeding requires a strong intention to
succeed. "How to" is secondary. Get inspired first.
Have a dream. If you really want
something you’ll invent amazing ways to
achieve it.
Create and cherish an inspiring vision. It will
motivate you
and
help you focus on those things you could do now
to bring that future state about.
Your dream must be big enough to keep you excited.
"Cherish your visions and your dreams as they
are the children of your soul; the blue prints of your ultimate
achievements,"
advised
Napoleon Hill. Having created an
inspiring vision, visualize your dream and use
positive affirmations to engage your
subconscious mind.
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Fall in love with what you are doing. Love is the
greatest source of
inspiration. "At the touch of love everyone becomes a poet,"
said Plato. When you enjoy what you do, you feel inspired by the
problems you face and gladly spend
your time coming up with great ideas to make things
differently or better.
According to Carl Gustav Jung, “The
creative mind
plays with the object it
loves.”
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Build your cross-functional expertise. Broader knowledge, better
ideas. Cross-functional excellence is a tremendous source of
inspiration and a booster for
entrepreneurial creativity. It
helps you
look wider,
change hats, combine the unusual,
and create
synergies. What's more,
if you develop a broad cross-functional
expertise, no new idea is wasted. It will immediately connect with the
existing knowledge and inspire you.
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Make outside-the-box thinking a habit.
You are creative! Just stretch your imagination.
Challenge assumptions.
Go wild. Look outside
your industry. Make new synergistic connections. Take a difference view. To
find a better creative solution to the current practice, force yourself to
reframe the problem, to break down its components and assemble them in a
different way. Practice creativity and stretch your creative muscles every
day to make outside the box thinking a habit.
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Learn something absolutely new.
Read inspirational books, at least one page every day.
Feel more relaxed and pay better attention to what is going on around you. Get and read an interesting book unrelated to your field or
expertise. Expose yourself to a different environment. Go to a place that
you haven’t been before. Meet new creative, inspiring and energized people.
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Play with different ideas.
Record or write your ideas down.
Review your list of ideas periodically when you are not disturbed.
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Quiet your mind. Great ideas come when there are fewer distractions,
your mind is fresh, and you are not stressed. Take a bird's eye view of the
things. Spend more time in the jacuzzi or in the shower. Go to bed a half an hour
early to have time for quiet reflection.
Meditate – by integrating your
dream with meditation, you will see results a lot faster.
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Cross-pollinate ideas with others.
Creative thinking
is an intense social activity. New ideas arise often from
cross-pollination. Cross-pollinate with people both within and outside your organization or
area of expertise. Encourage comments and ideas.
Inspire advocates.
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Harness the power of diversity. Collaborate with other people who
have complementary skills. People with different cultural, educational,
scientific, and business backgrounds will bring different frames of
reference to a problem and can spark an exciting and dynamic
cross-pollination of ideas.
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Experiment.
Experimentation
is the father of discovery. Immerse in your subject.
Learn from feedback and discover new
routes.
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Be self-confident. Believe that you are capable, and you will.
Identify your successes and take pride in them. Discover the things at
which you excel, and focus on your talents. Hard work nurtures
self-confidence. Victories, even small ones, boost self-confidence and make
hard work more enjoyable.
Think positively. Treat failures
as stepping stones to success. Keep smiling.
