How to Overcome Idea Block

Some ideas seem to have almost infinite value. Every company, every book, every film starts with an idea. Of course, ideas are nothing without execution. But without an idea, there wouldn’t be a reason to execute anything. Ideas create value. Value creates wealth. In other words, the world becomes richer when people generate more ideas. But to be known by others, an idea has to be captured. Written down. Or visualized.

Ideas have a problem, though. They can be hard to capture. They don’t always come when you want them to. And they are often disguised as madness.

Last year I started my Daily Thought project. I captured and visualized one idea per day. I aimed to visualize a year worth of thoughts — 365. But at 66 I stopped. I ran into something akin to writer’s block — except that it was an idea block. My ideas suddenly evaporated. this is when I started to notice in what circumstances I tend to generate ideas.