I apologize if I got you too excited with the headline, but I just felt like one of those kids selling newspapers on the street corner in old New York.

Have you ever had an idea that you felt was so great that you should tell everyone you know?  Yet, you know that it is such a good idea, that you might want to keep it on the down low for a little while until it takes shape.  Well my friends, I have such an idea, but that is not what I’m going to talk about.  However, I just wanted to address that feeling to tell the world that you get when the idea first comes to you.

That best way I have found to help myself keep the idea secret is to journal about it, write about it, and express it in anyway I can.  The idea usually stays in my head because I am trying to develop it only in my head.  When I start to build the idea in another medium, it is still in my mind, but not completely occupying it.  This way I can hold off talking about the idea to other people until I think it is to a point that they will completely understand it.  That gives me an idea for another post…

All too often you find someone searching out that one answer that should exist- how to make money. However, the answer is not always easy to find. This person will search and search until they finally understand a simple thing. This my friend is the first thing you must learn when beginning to make money on your own.

Working for someone else usually has a lasting affect on the way you know how to make money. Every week, two weeks, or month you receive a paycheck for a certain amount and that is reassuring. Whether you had worked yourself to death that month, or not really at all doesn’t matter too much. You have actually learned that instead of working to your full potential, you can set engines to half speed and you’ll still accomplish the same thing in the end.

To make money by yourself, you have to break this work pattern. You have to understand that you cannot use the same rules you had used all these years to make money, but instead have to flex your creative muscle in order to make this money.

Have you noticed why you only hear that money is easy to make if you are paying for the information. On the other hand, if you go to a blog on the internet with free information, you will read the opposite. This is because creating means of making money takes… creativity… As you know, anything that takes creativity is often thought of as difficult. I’m not saying that making money cannot be difficult, but you have to weigh your options accordingly. What is more difficult? Working for 20 years and realizing your work has not given you much in return. Or trying, failing, trying, failing, succeeding and finally establishing a means of making money that will give you much more- skills to repeat the process, unlimited potential, to say a few…

What Not to do

Searching out, “make quick money,” or, “get rich quick,” books will get you nowhere and quick. These books are usually (99.97% of the time) designed to lead you in circles. They are also most often based on out dated concepts that have already been used over and over again until they are no longer effective. Before you spend money on this information, ask yourself the following:

• If this information is worth a million dollars, why is the author selling it… and for $14.95?
• Was this information easy to find? If the information was very easy to find, imagine all the other people like you who have already read it…
• If the author really has made a large sum of money so that he doesn’t have to work, why is he writing an e-book and selling it for X amount of money? However, there are some legitimate e-books with authors who really have made a lot of money. But don’t expect them to tell you all of their secrets.

Solitude is the ultimate creative environment for some people.  In the silence of seclusion you can produce much more than in the presence of others, but again such an environment is only good for some. 

Being alone while creating something is good for productivity, but has many downsides if you are not careful:

Television

               If you leave your television on while you work, you will find that you don’t get much done in the process.  When your TV is on, you of course have it on something you like to watch.  This of course causes you to continually watch the show or movie instead of working on your project.  In order to stay on track, just turn off the TV and set aside time for it later.

Internet-Fun Websites and E-mail

               When you are working on a computer, the internet is loaded with distractions to get you off track.  From e-mail to video, you can find many ways to waste hours upon hours away before you even realize it.  To make sure that you don’t waste these precious hours of work, don’t navigate for entertainment and close your e-mail. 

Phone or Cell-Phone

               Sometimes you will get a call from a friend, you answer it.  And if that call just so happens to ring in while you are working on something, you could spend any amount of time talking instead of getting something done.  Instead of answering the call in the first place, don’t answer it and call the person back later when you have time.  If you do have to answer the call, give yourself ten to fifteen minutes to talk, end the call and then get back to work. 

So you see, continually interrupting your work will slow your progress and possibly cause your project to eventually fail.  For many, finding ways to not get off topic is a never ending battle.  If you are going to finish your project, the best way to do so is to set aside time for only one thing.  I will describe this in more detail in the future…  Some call it The Power of Concentration (link will be added here when the article is written).

I talked about motivation last week and also creating amazing ideas, but now I’d like to progress further into the idea process. At some point that many do not keep track of, an idea goes from being only a thought in our mind, to an actual working concept that we can show the world. I believe that there is a lot going on in what seems to be just an automatic transition. I also believe that without proper guidance, the entirety of the original idea can be lost forever.

You’ve just written down that amazing new idea, and now you want to push it a little further. You now want to see the idea become something more than just words on a piece of paper or pixels on your computer screen. But where do you start?

First of all, the best thing to do when you have created an idea is to clarify that idea completely. Type or write out everything you know, think, care, and plan for that concern the idea. Make sure you document all of your thoughts about the idea entirely. This step is important because you not only need to be able to come back to this document for reference, but also need to get all of your thoughts out. Of course the later makes room for your mind to tackle other problems or questions that might arise during development.

After you have emptied the contents of you mind, it’s time to go back and organize everything into a sort of, “game plan.” You can also think about it like a business plan in a sense. What you are going to do now is outline the entire development of this idea. Sound daunting? – It really isn’t. Here you are basically defining what you are specifically going to do in order to bring this idea into reality. If it helps you can even answer some of these questions:

You can even take some questions from business plans if you’d like…

• What your objectives?

• What do you plan to accomplish with this idea?

• Why you will be successful?

As you can see, you just want to figure out the goals of your idea. After this you can break the goal down into micro-goals for more order or organization.

So now you have a plan for you idea and you are half way there. Completing this plan shows you dedication and desire to seeing this idea take its full form and shape. The only thing left to do, and that is to act out your steps and plan created previously.

Now you have an understanding of why it is important to creating a plan when you have an idea. The plan gives you steps to follow until the idea is fully formed and your dream is achieved.

For a long time I used to feel disheartened by other’s innovation because I felt that I could not create something as profound.  Yet, when I began to create ideas left and right, the ideas never stopped coming.  It was at this point in my life that I realized how easy it really is to create something.  The only thing that stands between you and greatness is the passion you apply towards it. 

Did the light in your head turn off awhile ago; Too long to remember?  Well if it has, and the ideas just stopped coming to you, then let me point you in the right direction again. 

Change your Mind

Your mind is always coming up with solutions to problems you present it with.  If you don’t give your brain something to solve, then you will not get any answers.  This is why you might go for weeks without having any intriguing thoughts that just seem to come out of nowhere.  So the first step to get your brain working on some problems.  That might not sound exciting, because most of us have taught ourselves to generally avoid problems.  The first thing you need to realize is that you do no need avoid or becoming or become stressed in order to find a problem and try to solve it.  Problems are all in the eye of the beholder.  Some people see a problem, and others see a question that is yet to be answered.  Let the hesitation you have with the stresses associated with problems slip away, and recognize that you are only fundamentally trying to answer a question.

After all of that, it’s easy.  Once you find something to solve, you can go about your day and let your unconscious mind do the work for a change.  An example of this would be if you were trying to create a website, but had no idea what you wanted to create.  Rather than focus on not knowing what to create, you instead come up with a list of your hobbies, goals, aspirations, etc…  You later go to sleep that night, wake up, and go about your day as you usually do.  All of the sudden, seemingly out of nowhere, you have an epiphany.  The idea comes to you like a lighting bolt, and sends that tingling feeling of excitement from head to toe. 

Answer a Question

It is not difficult to determine what is going on in this instance.  You first recognize something you want to do.  Then you clarify what questions you need to answer.  In the above scenario, you had to answer the question, “What type of website will I create?”  By taking action towards the question’s answer, you found your solution very easily.  That last part of the process usually occurs on its own.  During some sort of an unconscious process throughout your day, while your mind is free, the answer comes to you.  For me, I tend to get answers just as I lay down to sleep for the night.  Right after I close my eyes, a thought hits me and I have to climb out of bed and document it for the next day.

I hope this has been of help to those of you who have trouble solving problems, answering questions, and creating amazing ideas.