Problem + Stimulus = IDEA!

If you’re reading this, I assume you have some kind of Problem that needs to be solved.  It really doesn’t matter what kind of problem it is.  It could be a piece of music you’re composing, and the bridge completely eludes you, even though the rest of the song is right on & sounds great.  You could be a research scientist on the edge of a breakthrough, but you’re so frustrated that you can’t find an answer for one seemingly small problem, that you feel like putting it in a drawer indefinitely.  All you need is the right Stimulus! Don’t keep banging your head against the wall…go out there and find yourself a Stimulus!  
The Stimulus that will generally produce the Idea that you need, will usually be in the last place you would think of finding it. One very important component, is that you must use or go to your Stimulus with a completely open mind and with your body completely relaxed. A few apt correlations would be Mindfulness Meditation or Bruce Lee’s Mind Like Water. One last caveat: you must not actively think about your Problem or solving it. Just let it roll around in your subconscious.

Here are a few Stimulus ideas:

• “Art” Streaming: go to an art or arts & crafts store, and get lots of different things to create with. Some possibilities are: clay,playdough (and all the toys that go with it if you like) canvases, paints, different types of brushes, interesting paper, colored pencils, crayons, glue, anything that catches your eye. Find someplace you like, but are unlikely to be bothered. I would probably take an old sheet, water (to rinse brushes, etc), paper towels, and some snacks & beverages to a park and lay out everything on the sheet under a nice tree with shade.  The idea is not to create a masterpiece…you can even throw it all away before you leave the park if you want. The point is to create for the sake of creating. Use anything and everything you have. Use things you don’t necessarily think should be used together. Just suspend any and all judgement and create, and once you’re “done” with one, start down another path creating. Repeat as many times as necessary. If you don’t feel like you’re 4 and you’re not laughing, you’re not doing it right. Completely let go of ideas of right or wrong, good or bad, and just have fun….no one’s watching, and if you’re expecting to have a Michelangelo at the end of the day, you need to switch careers and enroll in art classes. Have Fun!!!
  
  
• Do as above. However, visit a hardware store. Again, just go up and down the aisles getting things that catch your eye, and you’ll also probably need to make sure you have some basics: hammer, nails, wood/whatever glue, scraps of lumber, etc. Be sure to get some things that you like, but don’t have a clue what they are or what you’re supposed to do with them (and don’t ask anyone either).  Now continue on as outlined above.  You’ll probably have some very interesting “sculptures”. When you’re finished and have run out of materials. Just look at them with an open mind….you will have many interesting thoughts and some “aha” moments….maybe even one that will lead you to your Idea.
  
  
• Go listen to some live music…something you would ordinarily never listen to/go to.
  
  
• If you’re fortunate enough to have a part of your city/town where people from a different culture live. Go there. Take in everything you can: go in all the shops, take your time and browse. Eat in one of the restaurants. Browse the grocery store aisles- buy some ingredients and create a dish. Again, have fun!! If the people in the area seem talkative, by all means talk to them. Ask sincere questions about their culture. If you’re in an Italian neighborhood, find a place where you can play bocce ball- they’ll be happy to teach you.
  
  
• Go for a hike (be sure to take water, snacks, first aid kit, trail map, & field guide). Wear comfortable clothing, non-toxic bug repellent, sunscreen, and comfortable shoes.  The purpose of this hike is not to cover a certain distance, it is to carefully observe and appreciate nature: all the flora and fauna it offers.  This is where your field guide will come in. If you see something that catches your eye, look it up and find out what it is and what it’s uses are.  I can’t think of anything in nature that is not created in such a way that its form is not absolutely perfect for its function.  If you walk 10 miles, that’s fine. If you walk .25 miles and see a squirrel busily gathering and hiding nuts & acorns, you can find a relatively comfortable place to sit (quietly & still) and spend all of your time just watching the squirrel, that’s fine.
  
  
• Find someone with a child (ages 2-5, although 3 or 4 are best for this exercise) who will let you borrow him/her for 2 or 3 hours.  Ideally, you could stay with the child in their home, and the parent(s) can have an afternoon or evening to go out and have fun as well.  Ask the child what he/she wants to do (within reason of course…you have to return the child to the parents intact). Do whatever they want to do, and participate with enthusiasm! Who knows what you might wind up doing: building with blocks, playing dress-up, playing with a bunch of “hot wheels” cars, playing mailman after you’ve built a neighborhood with lots of blanket forts….the possibilities are endless. The only rules are: you can’t say no, unless it would be dangerous or involves tv or any kind of screen; you can’t take over or make suggestions of how to “do it better”, you must abandon yourself to the spirit of childhood and have fun!!
  
  
• Go to the bookstore/library and get a book on lateral thinking. Find a comfortable place to sit and a favorite beverage, and read it from cover to cover. If you’ve never explored lateral thinking before, you’ll never look at things the same way again.
  
  
• If you normally have a routine for your day that doesn’t vary much and tend to be regimented: turn it completely upside down and give it a good shake.  Write down the things you usually do during the course of your day from the time you wake up, until the time you go to sleep (you may or may not need to take the day off from work): include the things you wear, eat, whatever details you can think of.  Now cut each of these things off of your list with scissors. You should wind up with a small pile of little strips and strange shapes. Put them in a hat/bag/whatever. Now, without peeking, pick out one of the pieces of paper- that will be the first thing you do for the day, and so on until you’re out of slips of paper. You may find yourself having your morning cappuccino at 6 p.m. or putting on your gym clothes for work (which you’ll do from home) and all sorts of craziness.
  
  
• Get some paper or a journal you like, along with a pen you enjoy using. Find a place at a coffee shop or cafe, get yourself a beverage, and start writing. This will be very different because it will be stream of consciousness writing. For example: i’m writing this blog but i know my daughter is waiting to watch a movie with me i love her so much and she is such a great kid i wonder if we have things to make a quesadilla with i don’t feel like getting up oh there’s bertie walking in the room to see me he’s such a great dog too bad he’s already 6 i wonder how many more years we’ll have him with us i think i’ll get a banana……  You’ll just write pages and pages of anything and everything that comes to your mind without censoring it or worrying about sentences, punctuation, capitalization, etc. because you’ll never show it to anyone else and you can burn it if you like.  Just keep writing until you’ve truly emptied your head of all thoughts, or you finally get all the “garbage” out to give your subconscious a little more space and quiet, and your Idea pops out on your paper…
  
  
• Have a look at the TRIZ Contradiction Analysis: http://www.triz40.com/TRIZ_GB.php and just play around with it. It has hundreds of thousands of inventions and patents in its database. You may choose one of 40 problems you may want to solve, as well as one of 40 variables you either want to remain fixed or change as well.  It will tell you which patents  & solutions might apply to your specific problem. Remember, the idea is to play around with it, find out lots of things you may not have thought of before. Have Fun!!
  
  

As you’ve read through this list of possible stimuli, there’s probably one that you felt drawn to, and one that repelled you.  I would recommend doing the one you least want to do. It will definitely get you out of your comfort zone, which is a very good thing for growing in the ways we think, what we think is possible, and becoming more open-minded to new ideas and solutions. However, you must get into the spirit of it and Have Fun with it!!  If, after you do the one you didn’t particularly like, nothing is stopping you from doing the one you were drawn to.

Relax! Forget your problem! Have fun!!  The Idea will come to you, maybe that day, maybe a week later, but it will.