I’m sure that at some point in time that you’ve had an idea that you wish you could get back. Perhaps something inspired it while you were out and about but you forget it before you were able to get home. Perhaps you woke up one night and figured because it was so powerful you’d remember it when you woke up the next morning. Only to have forgotten it completely. I’m sure we’ve all had times like this when we wish we could have remembered something important. Something that had the potential to better or even change our life, or at the very least answer a question or solve a problem we had/have.
As a writer who writes very, very frequently I have to make sure that I am always staying open to ideas and that I can find “inspiration” (not a huge fan of that word) whenever and wherever I am. This has sharpened my observation skills and makes my mind think a lot harder when I look at things. Two good skills to have. However even with all that there is still plenty I forget. So I had to find a way to make sure that I was getting everything down and that didn’t let anything escape away from me that could potentially be used to improve the lives of you my reader.
With This One Simple Trick…
Alright so I’m not trying to sell you anything. But there is one simple trick that I’ve been using to make sure that if I’m reading, watching a video, or just out and about and something hits me that I make sure it sticks. It’s as simple as this. Writing it down. I always keep a pen and pad of paper with me around the house and when out I write down anything I want to remember in my note function on my phone. Whenever something is written down (pen and paper much much much superior to typing in on a keyboard or phone) it helps your brain to remember it.
Then generally at some point later in the day I’ll go and flesh out the idea or thought that I wrote down and see if it can be used for anything. This is how this site started, how my books got wrote, and how many articles on this were written. They started out as maybe a phrase or even a word and then were brought out from there. Not all make it, some get combined with others and some get tossed altogether or come up later in unexpected ways. But no matter what I make sure to write them down so I remember.
Flesh Out
Remembering your ideas is step one and the key to remembering your ideas is to write them down a wise old Chinese proverb says “The faintest ink is better then the strongest memory” or something to that extent. Point is if you want to remember something then write it down. Now after everything is written down you are going to take each idea or thought or word and flesh it out. So for example say you wanted to write an article about 3 Ways To Lose Weight. So you write out weight loss ideas.
Underneath 3 Ways To Lose Weight you write out diet, fitness, habits. This gives you three categories to work with for the article (you don’t have to do it my way I simply want to show you what fleshing something out looks like). Then let’s say you flesh that out to cutting sugar, barbell complexes, and walking everyday. Then you go and write the article. It all started with a simple thought. Maybe it you saw a commercial for weight loss and thought how many people want to lose weight. Or perhaps you saw a group of people all talking about how their weight loss efforts have been in vain. Anything could set it off.
Maturation
Now for bigger ideas such as series, books, or business ideas they’re going to take more than simply fleshing out to be brought to fruition. They will have to be worked on for some time to be complete. However they still start with fleshing them out. Expand on the idea and see in what directions that it can lead. Like a sculptor turning a mass of rock into a work of art. That is how shaping a big idea is whether it’s a business, a book, or something else. You start with this really rough, vague, big idea. Then you begin shaping it.
You flesh it out to see what’s there and where you can take it. Then you begin chipping away here and there until it starts to take shape. You keep adjusting it as you go. Until finally what was once a big undefined slab of rock that no one saw anything in has been turned into a work of art. Through working on it and sticking with it. See if you’d just let it go by nothing would have ever come out it. You have to grab it and keep it down by writing it down. That way you can come back and really get to work on it to turn it into something great.
Summary
Make the most of your ideas. The people who everyone stands in awe of for their accomplishments didn’t generally have the greatest minds with the greatest ideas. What they did do was write their ideas down and then take action of them day in and day out to bring them to be. Every book was once just an inkling of a thought in the back of someones head, same with every business, every invention, and just about everything else you see around you. Make the most out of these and prosper for it.
If you have any questions you would like to see answered in a future post send them to me at charlessledge001 (at) gmail (dot) com. If you found value in this post then I would encourage you to share this site with someone who may need it as well as check out my books here. I appreciate it. You can follow me on Twitter here.
-Charles Sledge
