I was driving, and all of a sudden an idea came out of nowhere, and struck me between the eyeballs. I have been trying to formulate an article about weak decision making and procrastination, and the part they play with each other. I have been having trouble getting it together.
I pulled over, reached into my open briefcase and pulled out my phone and feverishly tried to record my thoughts before I lost it in the next traffic snarl, or the next distraction whisked it away.
Have you ever had that happen to you? Have you ever been struck by a great thought or idea, or strategy, right in the middle of doing something else?
And then it was gone as quickly as it entered?
I get it a lot! I have lost many an idea to not being able to capture my thoughts when they decide to spring forth. I used to rely on notepads, napkins, kleenex, the back of my hand, etc., to write them down.
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Then one day, one of the articles I read, or tapes I was listening to, I can’t remember just who I got this from, gave me the idea that it would be a great idea to record those ideas for those times that I didn’t have any extra hands to write with.
Driving and writing or texting can be hazardous to your health and others.
I use it constantly. Much of my creative work and many of my articles, come from ideas I captured while I was doing something else. Driving, walking, jogging, relaxing, etc…
Solutions to problems seem to come out of nowhere. Free thinking seems to be more active when we are engaged in activities that do not take a lot of focus.
Our mind continuously works on what we question it with. We receive some of the answers at odd times, and we might not be ready at the time to grab them.
I have been kept up many times at night when I have got an idea just lying there in bed, and then, sure as day comes after night, there it is just popping into my head, something I have been waiting for, some problem gets answered out of the blue. I have to be ready for it. I have my phone and a note pad on the night stand just in case.
The lesson here is to be ready at all times to record those answers your mind comes up with. If you don’t record it immediately, you take a chance on not retrieving it after even a few seconds. What if you lost an idea that would have been worth a million dollars to you? When your subconscious sends you the answer to something that is important to you, be ready to document it.
Use whatever works best for you to record those ideas when they come to you. Pen and paper, voice recorder, lap top computer, palm pilot, etc, etc.
Plan for them and be ready because they will not wait for you, they have their own schedule and sometimes it is not convenient, but it is always exciting!
I cannot stress enough how important this is. Some of my best strategies came to me without warning. LOL.
Be prepared to capture your mind’s work and you will speed yourself on the way to what you want. I have never regretted carrying something to record my thoughts with. I have regretted some times when I didn’t have it with me.Â