Daily Inspiration: “You can never be too short of great ideas!”

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“You can never be too short of great ideas!” – Futurist Jim Carroll

Now that my series ’23 Trends for 2023′ has come to an end, the thought hit me: now what?

It was a lot of fun to write, and it certainly kept me focused on some key issues since I started writing it on December 1 last year. But it’s time to move on to something new for my Daily Inspiration.

I need some new ideas!

But wait! There’s no shortage of those. I’ve always been a big believer that you should never stop ‘ideating’ – that is, thinking of new ideas, exploring new concepts, and trying new things. Because that’s long been the key to finding tomorrow!

Ideas? I have no shortage of those. Nor should you!

I scribble a lot of notes to myself.

Every once in a while I collect them and dump them into a post Some have made their way into my Daily Inspiration, and I’m pretty certain that many on this list will have already made it into one, or will one day soon. With that thought in mind, here’s a post I did quote some time ago of 101 random ideas that I accumulated on scraps of paper until one day I typed them all into a post!

  1. If you aren’t scared of your competition, you should be.
  2. If you don’t know what comes next, learn more
  3. If a committee is killing your creativity, kill the committee
  4. If you seek the status quo, stop
  5. Everyone has a different breaking point – make yours stronger
  6. If no one can remember the last time you did anything cool, you’ve got a bigger problem than you think
  7. If your success is based on what you did yesterday rather than what you will do tomorrow, redefine your idea of success
  8. Insanity is when you want something different but you are averse to undertaking the change
  9. It’s the unknown and unforeseen that will get you every time
  10. If you aren’t thinking fast enough, speed will get you
  11. It’s not what you know, it’s what you don’t know that matters
  12. Right now, it’s pretty certain that someone out there is messing up your business model – and you aren’t even aware of them.
  13. Clinging to your past is probably the worst thing you can do right now
  14. Stop trying old solutions to new problems
  15. Just because it’s not happening right now doesn’t mean that it never will
  16. Don’t presume your business model will survive the next 5 years
  17. Find the thing that scares you the most. Conquer it
  18. Don’t feel bad about the mistakes you’ve made – view some of them as a pathway to success
  19. Stop saying it can’t be done – just do it already!
  20. Recognize that mistakes are a natural part of the process of success
  21. Master the skill of mistake-based learning.
  22. Stop focusing on regret for what you haven’t done and look forward with enthusiasm to what you could still do
  23. Don’t presume every dumb idea is a stupid idea – some of them are probably brilliant
  24. Stop making excuses, make actions
  25. Kill your aggressive indecision
  26. Create a culture in which it is okay to make mistakes, and unacceptable not to learn from them.
  27. Don’t hide from problems – learn from them
  28. Seek out interesting things – waste time with them
  29. Don’t allow yourself to go from feast to famine with your knowledge
  30. Never think you’ve got too much information – drown yourself in ideas
  31. Use aggressive fear of change as a basic personal motivation
  32. Don’t take on too many activities, take on too many ideas
  33. Turn your lack of courage into enthusiasm
  34. Never say “we tried that, it didn’t work”
  35. Avoid fad-ism
  36. Stop trying to find the right way – just find a way
  37. Don’t let uncertainty cloud your vision
  38. Don’t be first. Be better.
  39. Stop seeking an easy way out. There isn’t one.
  40. Put in the work.
  41. Spend every day tuning your roadmap for how you plan to live your life.
  42. Don’t always presume you are right – avoid being obstinate
  43. Consider that ignorance is a call for action,
  44. Don’t be selfish – be magnanimous
  45. Stop being surprised at surprises
  46. Try new things – regularly
  47. Avoid angry people
  48. Quit quitting
  49. Make the best of the worst moments
  50. Enhance your gratitude every moment you can
  51. Regularly nurture your optimism – its fertilizer for your soul
  52. Take more time to enjoy what you enjoy
  53. Work hard to avoid the trap of boredom
  54. Cultivate your compassion
  55. Remind yourself you don’t need to love every waking moment – it’s ok to get down
  56. Lighten your mood – avoid the heavy
  57. Don’t regret the things you haven’t done – anticipate what you have yet to do
  58. Move on from bad things faster
  59. Keep in mind that committees are where great ideas go to die
  60. Act faster to achieve more
  61. Remind yourself it could be worse
  62. Remember it’s ok to feel down sometimes – but work hard to chase the ‘up’
  63. Resist the energy that lies within your anger
  64. Don’t punish people for your mistakes
  65. Be patient with difficult people
  66. Pause 10 seconds before you send an angry tweet
  67. Never argue with false facts
  68. Remember that any particular day can suddenly turn out to be incredibly complicated and hard
  69. Don’t try to fight the future – because the future always wins
  70. Accept that change happens
  71. Keep in mind that stupid is not a strategy
  72. Regularly interrupt your complacency
  73. Act on your dreams
  74. Pursue bigger goals
  75. Ignore those who tell you your idea won’t succeed
  76. Avoid those who will try to destroy your optimism
  77. Remember that your imagination is your most powerful asset
  78. Find what you love, and build your life around it
  79. Remember that innovation is for everyone, not the mission of a privileged few
  80. Indulge your creativity
  81. Waste more time learning things completely unrelated to who you are
  82. Play more
  83. Fret less
  84. Avoid the dangerous drug of denial
  85. Admit when you are wrong
  86. Motivate others with your enthusiasm
  87. Remember there is always a chance for a hole in one
  88. Don’t let angry people bring you down
  89. Give back
  90. Share your gratitude
  91. Be open – solicit feedback
  92. Master the art of learning, not hiding, from constructive criticism
  93. Never presume that something is finished
  94. Restart that thing that you abandoned
  95. Channel frustration into more focused action
  96. Find more heroes
  97. Build your ideas, don’t just think about them
  98. Do better
  99. Do more
  100. Do it often
  101. Do it now

Ideas! You can NOT have enough of them!

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THE FUTURE BELONGS TO THOSE WHO ARE FAST features the best of the insight from Jim Carroll’s blog, in which he
covers issues related to creativity, innovation and future trends.

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