Are you one of those people who says, Im not very good at coming up with ideas? Do you find it difficult to free your mind up to be creative and think outside your usual patterns?

Here are five really quick ways to get your brain working in a different way. Whether you want to solve a problem, or just come up with a new approach to something in your life, try these tips.

Tip #1 Get the blood flowing. Your brain thrives on a healthy flow of blood, so before a bout of heavy thinking, you should try some heavy lifting. Any kind of exercise such as jogging, working with weights or some basic cardio will start your heart pumping and feed your neurons with a life-giving supply of well oxygenated blood.

Tip #2 Be clear about what your aim is. Write down the problem or subject in a clear form so your mind knows what to address. Give yourself an objective, such as to come up with five creative ways to make $1,000, or three ways to have the customers at your store spend more money. Write that down, so that you and your mind both know where you are headed.

Tip #3 Take off the brakes. What stops you thinking in innovative ways is allowing your worldview and life assumptions to dismiss answers before they are fully formed., so tell yourself that for the next ten or twenty minutes you are allowed to think the stupidest thoughts possible.

Grab a large piece of paper and write down every crazy idea, snippet of thought or funny sentence that comes to mind, even if it doesnt seem related to your problem or goal. Let your brain run free for a while, like a horse in a field letting off steam and dont judge what it comes up with.

For example your mind might suggest entertaining people in the street as one way you could make some money, or holding your customers hostage in your store to make them spend more. Crazy right? Well, maybe. Just keep going till you cant think of any more.

Tip #4 Try them against reality. This is where you hold up those seemingly crazy ideas to the light of reality, but dont think that this is about dismissing them out of hand. This is actually a process of adaptation, where you tinker with the ideas until they start to make some real sense.

For example, you might never consider dancing in the street, but could you employ someone to dance for you? Could you be a booker of street performers? Or could you find a street performer who ought to turn pro and become his manager? You see how the process works?

It might not be very sensible to hold your customers hostage, but what if you were to make your store such a fantastically comfortable and intriguing environment that they would naturally want to stay there longer, spending more money? Or turn it round and ask yourself, if they dont want to stick around my store longer, could I make my store stick round them? Could I extend my service to the web? Or arrange home deliveries.

This part is all abut taking crazy things and turning them inside out, upside down and poking holes in them or sticking them together with other crazy ideas, until something solid and practical and innovative suddenly forms before your eyes.

Tip #5 Take the best and do it. Finally all you have to do is narrow down your ideas, pick your very best, most exciting one and leave the rest on your brainstorm board. Then take that idea and act on it.

Action is the only way that you will know if it was worthwhile. Experiment with it; test it in the real world. If it doesnt work, come back and pick your next best one, or start the whole process over again.

Next time you have a problem to solve or need some new ideas rapidly, try this technique and I guarantee you that youll never feel the need to say Im not very good at coming up with ideas, ever again.

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