“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!
- If you aren’t scared of your competition, you should be.
- If you don’t know what comes next, learn more
- If a committee is killing your creativity, kill the committee
- If you seek the status quo, stop
- Everyone has a different breaking point – make yours stronger
- If no one can remember the last time you did anything cool, you’ve got a bigger problem than you think
- If your success is based on what you did yesterday rather than what you will do tomorrow, redefine your idea of success
- Insanity is when you want something different but you are averse to undertaking the change
- It’s the unknown and unforeseen that will get you every time
- If you aren’t thinking fast enough, speed will get you
- It’s not what you know, it’s what you don’t know that matters
- Right now, it’s pretty certain that someone out there is messing up your business model – and you aren’t even aware of them.
- Clinging to your past is probably the worst thing you can do right now
- Stop trying old solutions to new problems
- Just because it’s not happening right now doesn’t mean that it never will
- Don’t presume your business model will survive the next 5 years
- Find the thing that scares you the most. Conquer it
- Don’t feel bad about the mistakes you’ve made – view some of them as a pathway to success
- Stop saying it can’t be done – just do it already!
- Recognize that mistakes are a natural part of the process of success
- Master the skill of mistake-based learning.
- Stop focusing on regret for what you haven’t done and look forward with enthusiasm to what you could still do
- Don’t presume every dumb idea is a stupid idea – some of them are probably brilliant
- Stop making excuses, make actions
- Kill your aggressive indecision
- Create a culture in which it is okay to make mistakes, and unacceptable not to learn from them.
- Don’t hide from problems – learn from them
- Seek out interesting things – waste time with them
- Don’t allow yourself to go from feast to famine with your knowledge
- Never think you’ve got too much information – drown yourself in ideas
- Use aggressive fear of change as a basic personal motivation
- Don’t take on too many activities, take on too many ideas
- Turn your lack of courage into enthusiasm
- Never say “we tried that, it didn’t work”
- Avoid fad-ism
- Stop trying to find the right way – just find a way
- Don’t let uncertainty cloud your vision
- Don’t be first. Be better.
- Stop seeking an easy way out. There isn’t one.
- Put in the work.
- Spend every day tuning your roadmap for how you plan to live your life.
- Don’t always presume you are right – avoid being obstinate
- Consider that ignorance is a call for action,
- Don’t be selfish – be magnanimous
- Stop being surprised at surprises
- Try new things – regularly
- Avoid angry people
- Quit quitting
- Make the best of the worst moments
- Enhance your gratitude every moment you can
- Regularly nurture your optimism – its fertilizer for your soul
- Take more time to enjoy what you enjoy
- Work hard to avoid the trap of boredom
- Cultivate your compassion
- Remind yourself you don’t need to love every waking moment – it’s ok to get down
- Lighten your mood – avoid the heavy
- Don’t regret the things you haven’t done – anticipate what you have yet to do
- Move on from bad things faster
- Keep in mind that committees are where great ideas go to die
- Act faster to achieve more
- Remind yourself it could be worse
- Remember it’s ok to feel down sometimes – but work hard to chase the ‘up’
- Resist the energy that lies within your anger
- Don’t punish people for your mistakes
- Be patient with difficult people
- Pause 10 seconds before you send an angry tweet
- Never argue with false facts
- Remember that any particular day can suddenly turn out to be incredibly complicated and hard
- Don’t try to fight the future – because the future always wins
- Accept that change happens
- Keep in mind that stupid is not a strategy
- Regularly interrupt your complacency
- Act on your dreams
- Pursue bigger goals
- Ignore those who tell you your idea won’t succeed
- Avoid those who will try to destroy your optimism
- Remember that your imagination is your most powerful asset
- Find what you love, and build your life around it
- Remember that innovation is for everyone, not the mission of a privileged few
- Indulge your creativity
- Waste more time learning things completely unrelated to who you are
- Play more
- Fret less
- Avoid the dangerous drug of denial
- Admit when you are wrong
- Motivate others with your enthusiasm
- Remember there is always a chance for a hole in one
- Don’t let angry people bring you down
- Give back
- Share your gratitude
- Be open – solicit feedback
- Master the art of learning, not hiding, from constructive criticism
- Never presume that something is finished
- Restart that thing that you abandoned
- Channel frustration into more focused action
- Find more heroes
- Build your ideas, don’t just think about them
- Do better
- Do more
- Do it often
- Do it now
Ideas! You can NOT have enough of them!
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