So…You Want to Become an IDEA MACHINE. This is How You Do It.
Developing Your Superpower to Improve ALL AREAS of Your Life
I want to make sure that we really, really underscore the importance of this single practice that can revolutionize your life.
That is:
Do an idea list every single day.
It makes your brain sweat, gets your brain working and in top condition, improves your life and turns you into an Idea Machine.
If you’re a true idea machine, you’ll always have another way to do things.
You also have somewhat of a superpower. Any of your family, friends or loved ones can come to you with problems, or needing advice, and you’ll be able to help them right away. Your brain will be firing on all cylinders.
I’ve done it, and it’s been a huge blessing in my life.
Background
A few years back, I was actually in somewhat of a depression. I had a very good business. I had a fantastic family. Life should have been good, but I was definitely in a funk.
I think the reason why is that I felt like I wasn’t living up to my potential. And personally, I think if you’re not living up to your potential, or at least trying to, then you’re doing a disservice to God.
Along that time I ran across a book called Choose Yourself by James Altucher.
In the book, James does what he calls his “daily practice.”
With the daily practice he would do something good for himself physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. The thing that he did mentally to sharpen himself every day was the Idea List.
I took this and started running with it, and did the idea list along with a few other items in the Daily Practice.
The idea list in particular led to a renaissance of ideas and excitement for me.
I did ideas on:
- better ways to wake up in the morning
- new business enterprises
- places to volunteer
- even the article that you’re reading right now came from one of these idea lists.
- I am also starting another real estate company right now due to the practice of doing daily idea lists.
This stuff works, and it works like magic. So, again, I highly recommend it for you.
Now, what is an Idea List?
An idea list is taking any topic — just one — and coming up with at least ten ideas about that topic.
For instance, you could say “Twenty books that I could write that would change the world.” Which led to my book, by the way.
Or, it could be “ways to make my spouse feel extremely cared for and special.”
It could be “ways to make my life better that cause no issues, that are easy to do, with very little to no brain damage done.”
But, the point of the whole thing is, you come up with as many ideas as you can. At least ten to twenty.
I always did twenty, even though James in his book recommends ten, because I wanted to accelerate the progress. And, I think that I did.
The whole purpose is to get your brain to sweat. You want to use your brain every single day. Just like a muscle that you work out. It gets tired and it collapses, but it comes back the next day stronger and stronger. Until finally you become an IDEA MACHINE. And an idea machine is a fantastic person to be for your life.
You’ll think more clearly. Your brain will work efficiently. When someone asks you a question or for some advice, you’ll confidently tell them to grab a pen and paper, because you’re about to lay some heavy wisdom on them.
You’ll notice too — that if you don’t do your idea lists, your brain will stop working as quickly and efficiently as it had. It will start to atrophy, again, just like a muscle.
So, I encourage you to keep up the practice. It’s actually a lot of fun when you notice that you’re thinking more clearly and can use the ability to improve most anything.
One of the best things The Idea List can be used to do is to come up with action plans and execution steps for your ideas.
James Altucher mentions this in his book: if you find an idea that you need to follow — and I call that a Siren — if you find an idea that sings it’s siren song, and you have to follow it, your next idea list could be ten quick easy steps to breathe life into this project today.
And just that helps it become reality. If you don’t do this…your idea can die before it gets a chance to live.
My daughter Mandy had the idea of sending out “happiness boxes,” put together by adults with special needs.
Here is a great Idea List to get her started on that business:
What are some ways you could start that with very little money, in a short amount of time?
This is a GREAT idea list.
Some of the ideas might be:
- find a company where these adults are already working, and see if you can contract out a few hours a week from them.
- You could put together a list of companies that might want to donate items for such a worthy cause, and plan how you’d approach them.
- You could brainstorm ways to get Clients, or make a list of people that could help you in the endeavor…
The possibilities are endless and really kind of exciting!
I can’t tell you strongly enough that you need to do this to change your life.
School doesn’t tell you HOW to think. It doesn’t give the chance for you to improve your thinking power (other than rote memorization).
This actually makes your mind stronger and more fit. I hope you decide to use it, as it can truly revolutionize your life.
This is How You Do It:
● Commit to doing an idea list for at least two weeks. Every single day, with at least ten ideas per day. What you’ll find is that, initially, you may not think of great ideas. You may…but, as you do it day in and day out, you’ll find that you get better and better with the ideas.
Mr. Altucher says that within six months of doing this consistently, you can become an Idea Machine. The key is consistency. So, right now, promise that you’ll do it for at least two weeks, and hopefully that will give you enough of a taste to continue doing this longer.
● The next thing that I want you to do is really juice up the titles of each of your idea lists.
For example: “Twenty Books That Could Revolutionize the World and Cause People to Change Their Opinions For the Better” is a fantastic idea list.
That gets you excited about doing it. It pumps you up and it would make someone a lot more likely to read it if it had a marketing-type title. It just sells it to yourself and others.
● The first list that I want you to write is:
“Twenty Idea Lists That I Could Write That Would Change My Life For the Better.”
What’s beautiful about this is that whenever you’re stuck and you don’t know what kind of idea list to write, you can refer back to it.
Or you can write more ideas lists of idea lists you can write. That sounds very meta, but it’s a good thing for you.
● Lastly, write an idea list for a friend, either that’s in business or that needs help with their personal life.
Maybe someone that might just need a helping hand. Write an idea list that could truly help them out and share it with them, to bless their and your lives.
Maybe this sounds strange, maybe it’s a bit outside of your comfort zone…but I can promise you — as you do this kind of thinking more and more, your thinking will get better.
When your thinking gets better…EVERYTHING gets better.
I’d love that for you.
If you’d like more life lessons, habits, tricks, tips, and hacks, here are a couple of ways that I can help when you’re ready:
- Follow me here on Medium, obviously. Just click the “follow” next to that beautiful picture of me (I tried to make a link out of it, but it didn’t work).
- Read more from me: 10 Life Lessons that Will Change Everything.
- Check out and subscribe to my YouTube Channel, Love Life More, here.