Want ideas? Stop being boring!

[NeoDialectic]

Having trouble generating ideas? Don’t see any problems to solve? Most peoples problem is that they aren’t truly in the producer mindset yet. So that should definitely be the first thing to solve.

However I've found that some people do suffer from a less talked about roadblock. You could simply be a boring person! Haha. OK, maybe that is a little harsh. But the truth is that life can get so busy sometimes that we stop doing hobbies and other activities that open the door to even encountering opportunity. Depending on your occupation, you may only be exposed to problems there that are much bigger projects than you are willing to commit to. If all you do is work your 9-5, eat & sleep then your opportunity to bump into a problem is being stifled.

I know what it's like. When I just had my young children, most of my hobbies stopped for a period of time. So all of a sudden, my world got a lot smaller. I want to stress that this isn't an excuse not to act, as I could still have encountered and come up with something in the baby world. But the more you are out there experiencing different facets of life, the better your chances are of bumping into something.

So if you feel light on ideas, go out in the world and have some fun! Reignite that photography interest you had in college. Check back in on your favorite firearm forums. Start trying out hot sauces again. Sign back up with your local yoga studio. Hobbies are a great way to become an expert in something while not having the same motivational issues as work does. The fun and your interest sustains the motivation. This time around, make sure to bring in your producer mindset and keep everything you learned in TMF in mind.

The great part about diving back into an old hobby is that you can pick it up fast but come at it with a fresh perspective. Stay on the lookout for things people complain about on the forums. Notice things you have to jury-rig to make work properly in your hobby. For example, before the selfie stick (I know, I know, an abomination!) people would have to find random things in the scenary to rest their camera on or rely on other people. A cheap stick that holds a camera, turned into a million dollar idea.

So climb out from underneath that rock and expose yourself to the real world!

 

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[mikecarlooch]

Question - what do you do when you have so many ideas that it is extremely overwhelming and paralyzing sometimes?

I'm constantly seeing new ideas that seem soo good and sometimes the thoughts of ideas and which idea to execute on puts me in a state of mind where I can't even work at all because I don't want to put time into the wrong thing.

Every time this happens, I find myself wasting tons of time, and constantly switching tasks, which tends to ruin my focus..

And as a result.. I find myself slowly "switching back to team consumer" (which really bothers me mentally) because taking in more information is the only thing I feel I can do for the day. For me there seems to be ups and downs switching from producer to consumer in monthly periods because of either not knowing what to do or having too much to do slows me down dramatically.

Any tips?

Thanks!

 

[Edgar King]

Question - what do you do when you have so many ideas that it is extremely overwhelming and paralyzing sometimes?

I'm constantly seeing new ideas that seem soo good and sometimes the thoughts of ideas and which idea to execute on puts me in a state of mind where I can't even work at all because I don't want to put time into the wrong thing.

Every time this happens, I find myself wasting tons of time, and constantly switching tasks, which tends to ruin my focus..

And as a result.. I find myself slowly "switching back to team consumer" (which really bothers me mentally) because taking in more information is the only thing I feel I can do for the day. For me there seems to be ups and downs switching from producer to consumer in monthly periods because of either not knowing what to do or having too much to do slows me down dramatically.

Any tips?

Thanks!

Perhaps you could try to get all your ideas out on an excel sheet and create multiple columns of factors of what the perfect idea will be. Then choose the one you think has a good chance and try to knock it out. MJ explained this really well in a video before, better than I can but it's probably like baseball, you'll never know if it'll be a home run unless you try. Granted, it may be a miss, but even if it is, you'll get more exeperience with each swing.

 

[GuestUser4aMPs1]

Question - what do you do when you have so many ideas that it is extremely overwhelming and paralyzing sometimes?

I'm constantly seeing new ideas that seem soo good and sometimes the thoughts of ideas and which idea to execute on puts me in a state of mind where I can't even work at all because I don't want to put time into the wrong thing.

You constantly have to weigh your odds of success.

If you're in this game long enough, you begin to realize 9 out of 10 of your ideas are utterly flawed in ways you can't see yet.

Of course, I've found the 1 out of 10 idea always stay on my mind. So, I take note of it, then pursue it.

If you have unlimited time, energy, and resources at your disposal then by all means pursue them.

But since 99% of us don't have that, you need to train yourself to be diligent with your mental focus.

 

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[mikecarlooch]

Perhaps you could try to get all your ideas out on an excel sheet and create multiple columns of factors of what the perfect idea will be. Then choose the one you think has a good chance and try to knock it out. MJ explained this really well in a video before, better than I can but it's probably like baseball, you'll never know if it'll be a home run unless you try. Granted, it may be a miss, but even if it is, you'll get more exeperience with each swing.

Definitely need to do something like this..

Currently, whenever I get a new idea i just open a new google doc and write for 20 minutes about this amazing thing in detail

and now I have a ridiculous amount of docs lol so hard to keep track of

Thanks for sharing!

 

[NeoDialectic]

Question - what do you do when you have so many ideas that it is extremely overwhelming and paralyzing sometimes?

I'm constantly seeing new ideas that seem soo good and sometimes the thoughts of ideas and which idea to execute on puts me in a state of mind where I can't even work at all because I don't want to put time into the wrong thing.

Every time this happens, I find myself wasting tons of time, and constantly switching tasks, which tends to ruin my focus..

And as a result.. I find myself slowly "switching back to team consumer" (which really bothers me mentally) because taking in more information is the only thing I feel I can do for the day. For me there seems to be ups and downs switching from producer to consumer in monthly periods because of either not knowing what to do or having too much to do slows me down dramatically.

Any tips?

Thanks!

The most obvious answer is stop switching from idea to idea and focus on your top one. But it's also a useless answer since you already know that but it's likely just difficult to do with your natural disposition. I call these "fool yourself" problems, because my solution is to try and figure out ways to fool myself into doing what you know needs to be done.

Here's one example idea that could work for you. Think about ways that may tie you to an idea. If you had a job that was given to you by your boss, you wouldn't go and do something completely different right? So fool yourself into that situation. Think of your primary idea as a job given to you by your career boss.

Pick a few of your favorite ideas and disregard all the rest. Then either pick what you believe best fits CENTS or if you can't pick then toss a coin. From there on in commit to the idea to both yourself and publicly. That may mean starting a progress thread on here saying you have X idea and here is my progress. Then you answer to not just yourself but others as well.

When other ideas creep up, thats all well and dandy. You can even write them down. But just like if you were working for someone else, dont steal your work time to work on non-work jobs. You are working on the current idea not because its the best, but because it was the job given to you. (Thinking of it this way may short circuit the shiny new idea syndrome). You will work on your GREAT new shiny idea after you finish with your work.

Obviously, at some point, it's not worthwhile to keep working on an idea that isn't working. But considering your disposition, work on it much longer than you think you should. You should give each idea anywhere from days to weeks of dedicated research/action before reconsidering it's viability.

 

[Joejordan95]

The most obvious answer is stop switching from idea to idea and focus on your top one. But it's also a useless answer since you already know that but it's likely just difficult to do with your natural disposition. I call these "fool yourself" problems, because my solution is to try and figure out ways to fool myself into doing what you know needs to be done.

Here's one example idea that could work for you. Think about ways that may tie you to an idea. If you had a job that was given to you by your boss, you wouldn't go and do something completely different right? So fool yourself into that situation. Think of your primary idea as a job given to you by your career boss.

Pick a few of your favorite ideas and disregard all the rest. Then either pick what you believe best fits CENTS or if you can't pick then toss a coin. From there on in commit to the idea to both yourself and publicly. That may mean starting a progress thread on here saying you have X idea and here is my progress. Then you answer to not just yourself but others as well.

When other ideas creep up, thats all well and dandy. You can even write them down. But just like if you were working for someone else, dont steal your work time to work on non-work jobs. You are working on the current idea not because its the best, but because it was the job given to you. (Thinking of it this way may short circuit the shiny new idea syndrome). You will work on your GREAT new shiny idea after you finish with your work.

Obviously, at some point, it's not worthwhile to keep working on an idea that isn't working. But considering your disposition, work on it much longer than you think you should. You should give each idea anywhere from days to weeks of dedicated research/action before reconsidering it's viability.

Sound advice.

I engage in the same sort of roundabout behaviour as @mikecarlooch but this seems like a viable way of overcoming those tendancies.

Appreciate such a thought out response @NeoDialectic

 

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[Andy Black]

Definitely need to do something like this..

Currently, whenever I get a new idea i just open a new google doc and write for 20 minutes about this amazing thing in detail

and now I have a ridiculous amount of docs lol so hard to keep track of

Thanks for sharing!

I have a Trello board called "Business Ideas On Hold". I create a new card with a short sentence whenever I have a brain wave and leave it at that. The monkey and lizard brain can then stop chattering as it's happy you "did" something with its idea. I haven't updated it in years now actually. I've got blinkers on.

Reframe those urges to do something else as your lizard brain fearing that what you're about to do will move you forward. Your lizard brain is scared and wants to distract you so you can stay comfortably where you are.


There's people doing very well consulting, coaching, delivering productised services, growing a SaaS, building YouTube channels, selling courses, building paid communities, etc. They're typically just doing one of the above first though.


Remember the advice from Ready, Fire, Aim?

If you're under $1m/year then stick to one avatar, one channel, one product.


Someone, somewhere is focused on ONE avatar-channel-product combo and is gunning to be a 10/10 at it.

Meanwhile, you're spread across 5 different avatar-channel-product combos and are a 5/10 at each.

Think you can beat the 5 *different* 10/10 guys in each avatar-channel-product you're spending 20% of your time at?

Oh, and they're spending 100% of their time on something they're a 10/10 at, not 20% of their time.

You're chances don't look good now do they?


I don't just do Google Ads.

I just do Google Ads on the Google search engine, and just for lead gen.

I don't touch Google Ads on the Display Network, YouTube, Gmail, etc.

I don't touch eCommerce.

I drill down more and more till I'm a 10/10 and then I focus 100% of my time on it.

My next step is focusing on ONE avatar. I serve too many niches.

 

[mikecarlooch]

I have a Trello board called "Business Ideas On Hold". I create a new card with a short sentence whenever I have a brain wave and leave it at that. The monkey and lizard brain can then stop chattering as it's happy you "did" something with its idea. I haven't updated it in years now actually. I've got blinkers on.

Reframe those urges to do something else as your lizard brain fearing that what you're about to do will move you forward. Your lizard brain is scared and wants to distract you so you can stay comfortably where you are.


There's people doing very well consulting, coaching, delivering productised services, growing a SaaS, building YouTube channels, selling courses, building paid communities, etc. They're typically just doing one of the above first though.


Remember the advice from Ready, Fire, Aim?

If you're under $1m/year then stick to one avatar, one channel, one product.

Thank you Andy.

I did exactly what you did and made a trello board just now

I'm also currently nose deep in Ready,Fire,Aim (only the first portion however, I don't think I will read along until reaching the 1 million mark.

Someone, somewhere is focused on ONE avatar-channel-product combo and is gunning to be a 10/10 at it.

Meanwhile, you're spread across 5 different avatar-channel-product combos and are a 5/10 at each.

Think you can beat the 5 *different* 10/10 guys in each avatar-channel-product you're spending 20% of your time at?

Oh, and they're spending 100% of their time on something they're a 10/10 at, not 20% of their time.

You're chances don't look good now do they?

This is a real kick in the a$$.

So right..

 

[Albert KOUADJA]

greatthread. thanks for everybody who intervened in this thread and brought advices in general and in particular for @NeoDialectic who made this thread. It is precious advices.

 

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[Antifragile]

Question - what do you do when you have so many ideas that it is extremely overwhelming and paralyzing sometimes?

I'm constantly seeing new ideas that seem soo good and sometimes the thoughts of ideas and which idea to execute on puts me in a state of mind where I can't even work at all because I don't want to put time into the wrong thing.

Every time this happens, I find myself wasting tons of time, and constantly switching tasks, which tends to ruin my focus..

And as a result.. I find myself slowly "switching back to team consumer" (which really bothers me mentally) because taking in more information is the only thing I feel I can do for the day. For me there seems to be ups and downs switching from producer to consumer in monthly periods because of either not knowing what to do or having too much to do slows me down dramatically.

Any tips?

Thanks!

Write them all down. Pen and paper is fine. Then rank them in terms of:
1. Need
2. Feasibility
3. Profit potential
4. Your own enthusiasm to it
5. Efficiency

You’ll learn that out of 100 ideas:
10 are garbage
70 aren’t even needed, have profit, not feasible for your current level (like commercial space travel lol), etc.
17 are ok, might even meet CENTS …
2 appear to be great, but may not be efficient
1 gets your mind racing and created an itch you MUST scratch, you have to do it, win or lose, it is happening.

Good luck.

 

[Andy Black]

1 gets your mind racing and created an itch you MUST scratch, you have to do it, win or lose, it is happening.

Exactly. The best reason I heard to start a business is that it's something you can't NOT do.

 

[markly32]

your daily agendas stretch endlessly — and on? Do you fear browsing email on Friday evenings, stressed over seeing messages stacking up when you're simply attempting to get out the entryway? Or on the other hand perhaps you've seen that uneasiness is keeping you from focusing on anything you're right now doing. You could feel restless that you're not working during times that are contradictory with working, similar to while you're clasping your kid into their vehicle seat or you're stranded in rush hour gridlock. You might try and have a restless outlook on the task you're not working on when you're in the middle of stopping ceaselessly on something different.

Assuming you have snapshots of feeling overpowered by your responsibility, here are a few ideas to attempt. Not these will be appropriate for everybody, so pick your thought process will help you. However, consistently, consistently start with taking sluggish breaths (it's smarter to zero in on sluggish as opposed to profound relaxing). Slow breathing assists you with halting overreacting and take an all the more long haul center as it initiates the cerebrum's get ready and-plan outlook. On the off chance that you center around breathing out like you're exploding an inflatable gradually, your breath in with normally control itself.

Practice your acknowledgment abilities with sound self-talk
The best self-talk assists you with feeling more settled and in charge. It consolidates self-empathy and fitting liability taking (not to an extreme, not excessively little). Feeling unnecessarily mindful is related with a weakness to stress. Explore different avenues regarding various sorts of self-talk and see what turns out best for you. As an opening shot, you could attempt:

"Despite the fact that I have what should be done, I can zero in on the one thing I'm doing at present. I'll feel improved assuming I do that."
"I would like to have the option to accomplish more in a day, yet I will acknowledge what I'm practically ready to do." (This expression uses a typical mental social treatment procedure where it's suggested individuals trade out their "shoulds" for "like" or "could" to ease uneasiness and feel more enabled).
I like the mantra "What's the best activity to take at the present time?" to advise me that ruminating about the past or stressing over what's to come slows down ideal centering and focusing on.
"I partake in my work so I like to be occupied. Regular I will feel overpowered in some cases. I can deal with those feelings and make changes depending on the situation."
Track your opportunity to give yourself an exact standard
There's some proof from research contrasting time following information with self-reports that individuals who say they work extremely extended periods are for the most part misjudging. Huge scope research demonstrates that the extent of individuals working north of 60 hours out of every week is minuscule, at around 6%. On the off chance that you're telling yourself "I work 70 hours every week" your mind will respond as though that were valid, regardless of whether it's a misrepresentation.

How does this thinking blunder emerge? Here and there our minds rush to make judgment calls in light of our feelings. At the point when you have a restless outlook on work, your cerebrum will misjudge the amount you're working, which thusly causes you to feel more restless and sets up a self-sustaining cycle. At the point when your view of your responsibility is decisively exaggerated, the circumstance feels sad, which will probably leave you feeling discouraged as well as restless and you'll become avoidant. You won't make the down to earth strides you could to address what is happening. Assuming you're making this assessment blunder, don't think about it too literally. This is an inescapable general example and not an individual imperfection.

Take a stab at following your time for a solitary week. There are online instruments for this, yet you can likewise utilize a bookkeeping sheet or simply a note pad. Track your time without effectively endeavoring to change your way of behaving. Your conduct will normally change in sure courses because of observing, so there's compelling reason need to drive it, to some degree at first. (Laura Vanderkam gives extraordinary tips of how to approach doing this and how to order your information in her book, 168 Hours.)

Limit brief business related exercises during non-work time, such as marking your telephone or shooting a fast email. Equitably these exercises may just require a couple of moments, however this example can feel like it consumes additional time than it really does, so control these ways of behaving.

The other side is that little explosions of significant non-work exercises can assist your existence with feeling more adjusted. For instance, on the off chance that I hunch down and look my two-year old in the eye while we're having a second together, those seconds give me a sense I'm doing greater quality nurturing, despite the fact that it's a couple of moments to a great extent. Five minutes of continuous discussion feels more significant than 10 minutes of dispersed consideration.

Actually take a look at your suppositions about others' assumptions
We frequently self-produce rules we anticipate that ourselves should adhere to. For instance, "I want to answer to Sandra more rapidly than she by and large answers to me." Or, "I want to answer to any email inside the day." Consider that when individuals require a long time to answer, it conveys the message that they're occupied and focusing on, and may prompt others regarding their chance undeniably.

One of my annoyances is getting "to do" messages on Friday evenings — that's what my trepidation is in the event that I don't finish whatever is required throughout the end of the week, the early piece of the next week will top off and the individual who messaged me will be passed on hanging tight for me to complete anything it is I really want to do. In any case, it merits thinking about that whoever reached you as they were running out the entryway from work probably won't need a reaction during the end of the week. Answering promptly to late night messages adds to the consistently on cycle for everybody.

Practice not answering messages beyond business hours. The vast majority will receive the message, and may see the value in you assisting them with their own limits. At the point when you limit your answers to business hours you're bound to consider where answering squeezes into your general needs than if your example is to leap to consideration at any hour of the day after getting messages.
Explain assumptions with others. Rather than expecting that your manager needs something done right away, why not ask her when she wants it by?
Tell individuals when you'll hit them up. Assuming something will practically take both of you weeks to get to, simply say as much.
Look at your suspicions about progress' expectation's
On a comparable subject, you could likewise be self-producing broken considerations about the stuff to find lasting success in your field. Perfectionistic presumptions like, "To succeed I really want to work harder than every other person" become particularly tricky while you're ascending through the positions in a cutthroat industry and you're in a gathering of different overachievers. Here is the interesting part about distinguishing your concern contemplations: our suspicions and self-produced rules are frequently certain. While you're feeling hopeless or hindered, that is an extraordinary opportunity to chase down any secret suspicions that are adding to that.
Question - what do you do when you have so many ideas that it is extremely overwhelming and paralyzing sometimes?

I'm constantly seeing new ideas that seem soo good and sometimes the thoughts of ideas and which idea to execute on puts me in a state of mind where I can't even work at all because I don't want to put time into the wrong thing.

Every time this happens, I find myself wasting tons of time, and constantly switching tasks, which tends to ruin my focus..

And as a result.. I find myself slowly "switching back to team consumer" (which really bothers me mentally) because taking in more information is the only thing I feel I can do for the day. For me there seems to be ups and downs switching from producer to consumer in monthly periods because of either not knowing what to do or having too much to do slows me down dramatically.

Any tips?

Thanks!

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Engaging in LIFE opens up the world to new ideas and opportunities.... people who complain about "no ideas" tend to be locked on the couch surfing social media and/or binging Netflix.

I think if I did that for 1 month straight, I'd too be complaining about "no ideas"

 

[enchifred]

Great idea on engaging life more often and intently!

There's a lot of discussion of people using Google Docs, Excel, etc. to write down ideas so you don't lose them. I've found Notion to be the best at this, because it's just like Google Docs (you can create a new text document for every idea you have) except it's sortable into a database (easy to sift through all your ideas!).

When you're out interacting in the real world, if an idea strikes you suddenly, you can simply pull out your phone, open the Notion App (they have a mobile app), and create a new document to write down your idea immediately.

Below I've just created a quick mockup of how it could look (I already have my own separate one) -- you can create a CENTS template here that pops up whenever you make a new document, so you can immediately start filling it in.

Hope this helps you guys hold onto that million dollar idea!

 

[Guest-5ty5s4]

People with no ideas are either doing too little (nothing but couch surfing/social media) or too much (grinding and hustling). I am guilty of both. Take a chill pill, go out on the town, travel, try a new hobby, meet some new people. Take in life!

 

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[DarkZero]

I definitely have far too many ideas. Constantly having to say "no". Then, opportunities come up in my network to pursue. Still have to force myself to say no.

My biggest thing when I have something or a few ideas to pursue is to ask myself "am I willing to do this for the next 3-5 years? What about 10 years?" Most of the time, the answer is no on the 10 years. But 3-5 years to cashflow or exit, that's something I can say yes to.

That 10 year process eliminates a lot of things I wouldn't want to do that long. And there are other things that I find that I would!

Another question to ask to speed up the process of results is "how do I make X in 3 months? In 6 months?" That would also eliminate a lot of smaller opportunities where you could put forth effort into higher level opportunities.

That doesn't mean small opportunities are "bad". Not at all. Plenty of businesses built off small opportunities that create great cashflow and can lead to an exit. Just a matter of deciding how you want to spend your time. This is what I struggle with from time to time. What opportunities do I want to play in? Do I want to level up or stay in the same place? It's not even about purpose or fun. It's just about the process of applying my skillsets, improving them, and playing as big as I can in my current situation.

 

[Amogh]

Having trouble generating ideas? Don’t see any problems to solve? Most peoples problem is that they aren’t truly in the producer mindset yet. So that should definitely be the first thing to solve.

However I've found that some people do suffer from a less talked about roadblock. You could simply be a boring person! Haha. OK, maybe that is a little harsh. But the truth is that life can get so busy sometimes that we stop doing hobbies and other activities that open the door to even encountering opportunity. Depending on your occupation, you may only be exposed to problems there that are much bigger projects than you are willing to commit to. If all you do is work your 9-5, eat & sleep then your opportunity to bump into a problem is being stifled.

I know what it's like. When I just had my young children, most of my hobbies stopped for a period of time. So all of a sudden, my world got a lot smaller. I want to stress that this isn't an excuse not to act, as I could still have encountered and come up with something in the baby world. But the more you are out there experiencing different facets of life, the better your chances are of bumping into something.

So if you feel light on ideas, go out in the world and have some fun! Reignite that photography interest you had in college. Check back in on your favorite firearm forums. Start trying out hot sauces again. Sign back up with your local yoga studio. Hobbies are a great way to become an expert in something while not having the same motivational issues as work does. The fun and your interest sustains the motivation. This time around, make sure to bring in your producer mindset and keep everything you learned in TMF in mind.

The great part about diving back into an old hobby is that you can pick it up fast but come at it with a fresh perspective. Stay on the lookout for things people complain about on the forums. Notice things you have to jury-rig to make work properly in your hobby. For example, before the selfie stick (I know, I know, an abomination!) people would have to find random things in the scenary to rest their camera on or rely on other people. A cheap stick that holds a camera, turned into a million dollar idea.

So climb out from underneath that rock and expose yourself to the real world!

Thank you for this post.

 

[Mhesh]

Question - what do you do when you have so many ideas that it is extremely overwhelming and paralyzing sometimes?

I'm constantly seeing new ideas that seem soo good and sometimes the thoughts of ideas and which idea to execute on puts me in a state of mind where I can't even work at all because I don't want to put time into the wrong thing.

Every time this happens, I find myself wasting tons of time, and constantly switching tasks, which tends to ruin my focus..

And as a result.. I find myself slowly "switching back to team consumer" (which really bothers me mentally) because taking in more information is the only thing I feel I can do for the day. For me there seems to be ups and downs switching from producer to consumer in monthly periods because of either not knowing what to do or having too much to do slows me down dramatically.

Any tips?

Thanks!

Relax and calm down;; don’t be too excited; just get a pen and paper and write down. Step by step.. execute???

 

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[Koen_88]

Great post! Got my mind firing in all directions, partially due to MJ's newsletter.

Disclaimer: a lot of "I's" in this post. See this as someone partially self reflecting here, knowing that this is that I have to deal with myself but still hoping on that one nugget of knowledge freeing me of all barriers.

I think I "engage" in life a bit too much. I do have ideas! But it's hard to act on them...

I have a job in engineering as a project engineer, specializing in document management system implementation atm and 3D CAD admin tasks.

I'm into sports: fitness, tennis, cycling(spring summer, early fall), mountainbiking (during fall, winter, early spring)

I'm into music: Play the saxophone (intermediate level), play in a windband with weekly rehearsals through the year, play in a coverband, transcribe/arrange music for said coverband, transcribe/arrange music for wind band when necessary (to make others life easier).

I'm into community work/activities:

• Chairman/director of a wind band (+/- 30ppl) but only active through november through february
• One of the leaders of a club of something that resembles scouts (without badges etc.) leaders for a group of kids aged 13/14. (good for my creativity). with weekly meetings of 1.5hr.
• Member of the general board of that sort of scouts club, and member of the committee responsible for onboarding and training new scout leaders (most of those we get out of 18 y/o "kids" that want keep part of the club)

oh and I have friends and famliy!

I dont know if its hard for me to act on the ideas or that I'm scared shitless to actually do anything with the ideas. Or scared to give one of the above up. I'm still figuring that out for myself. As you can see that I do have quite a broad network of ppl. But I'm also afraid of going serious on an idea and being ridiculed in said network. So I've got some shit to work out, but that would be obvious by only counting the "I's" in this post.

 

[AlaKhalil]

Having trouble generating ideas? Don’t see any problems to solve? Most peoples problem is that they aren’t truly in the producer mindset yet. So that should definitely be the first thing to solve.

However I've found that some people do suffer from a less talked about roadblock. You could simply be a boring person! Haha. OK, maybe that is a little harsh. But the truth is that life can get so busy sometimes that we stop doing hobbies and other activities that open the door to even encountering opportunity. Depending on your occupation, you may only be exposed to problems there that are much bigger projects than you are willing to commit to. If all you do is work your 9-5, eat & sleep then your opportunity to bump into a problem is being stifled.

I know what it's like. When I just had my young children, most of my hobbies stopped for a period of time. So all of a sudden, my world got a lot smaller. I want to stress that this isn't an excuse not to act, as I could still have encountered and come up with something in the baby world. But the more you are out there experiencing different facets of life, the better your chances are of bumping into something.

So if you feel light on ideas, go out in the world and have some fun! Reignite that photography interest you had in college. Check back in on your favorite firearm forums. Start trying out hot sauces again. Sign back up with your local yoga studio. Hobbies are a great way to become an expert in something while not having the same motivational issues as work does. The fun and your interest sustains the motivation. This time around, make sure to bring in your producer mindset and keep everything you learned in TMF in mind.

The great part about diving back into an old hobby is that you can pick it up fast but come at it with a fresh perspective. Stay on the lookout for things people complain about on the forums. Notice things you have to jury-rig to make work properly in your hobby. For example, before the selfie stick (I know, I know, an abomination!) people would have to find random things in the scenary to rest their camera on or rely on other people. A cheap stick that holds a camera, turned into a million dollar idea.

So climb out from underneath that rock and expose yourself to the real world!

Great post

 

[fastlane_dad]

So if you feel light on ideas, go out in the world and have some fun! Reignite that photography interest you had in college. Check back in on your favorite firearm forums. Start trying out hot sauces again. Sign back up with your local yoga studio. Hobbies are a great way to become an expert in something while not having the same motivational issues as work does. The fun and your interest sustains the motivation. This time around, make sure to bring in your producer mindset and keep everything you learned in TMF in mind.

The additional caveat here is there is definitely nothing 'Get-Rich-Fast' in going this route.

In some ways, this CAN seem like a step backwards - but it is actually not.

It might take you months or even YEARS until you stumble on an even a single idea you would like to take at-bat after immersing yourself in a hobby. You might have to try a couple different things. Thing is you have to stay entrepreneurial minded all along and see what or how you might be able to add on in that particular niche.

Even if your hobby is immersing yourself in video games (which there is nothing wrong with)! - you need to constantly and consistently be thinking about products or services to add value. Maybe a COZY lounge chair for gamers? One with COMFY elbow pads? How about some wrist pads to help prevent wrist pain while holding the PS5 controller? Maybe some cool looking blue-light filtering eyeglasses to prevent some eye strain? Heck maybe even something as simple as some tshirts - designed with some cool gaming mascots. Or creating a community around a specific game you are fully into. I'm just shooting off the hip here - but those would be thoughts running through MY MIND if I got into video gaming, and was looking to create a fastlane-type business around a certain part of the experience.

Also - you might be SPENDING time and money investing and participating in these hobbies. Don't necessarily feel guilty, but DO make sure that you are not overspending, and have a solid plan of funds coming in , in order to be able to enjoy your time off doing some of this.

But yes - long story short it is difficult to see opportunities, and figuring out how you are able to add value if all you do is binge netflix, eat ice cream, and daydream throughout your days.

 

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[SSTrey]

I love this post. For a while I have been wondering about getting new ideas and also about periods of having too many ideas & which to choose.

Some time back after reading MJs books, I started opening up my mind more to put myself in more of a producer mindset and letting my creative side come out, as opposed to being too headstrong thinking about ideas I THINK I may like.
I definitely have more ideas these days, I add them to my word document whilst I am already pursuing one of them currently.

 

[NeoDialectic]

My biggest thing when I have something or a few ideas to pursue is to ask myself "am I willing to do this for the next 3-5 years? What about 10 years?" Most of the time, the answer is no on the 10 years. But 3-5 years to cashflow or exit, that's something I can say yes to.

That 10 year process eliminates a lot of things I wouldn't want to do that long. And there are other things that I find that I would!

Another question to ask to speed up the process of results is "how do I make X in 3 months? In 6 months?" That would also eliminate a lot of smaller opportunities where you could put forth effort into higher level opportunities.

I definitely do this at this stage of my life. But that is because I have already achieved financial freedom. So I am picking and choosing passion projects. I think someone starting out and in need of ideas, should not be turning down ideas because they would take 10 years to exit though.

 

[NeoDialectic]

Great post! Got my mind firing in all directions, partially due to MJ's newsletter.

Disclaimer: a lot of "I's" in this post. See this as someone partially self reflecting here, knowing that this is that I have to deal with myself but still hoping on that one nugget of knowledge freeing me of all barriers.

I think I "engage" in life a bit too much. I do have ideas! But it's hard to act on them...

I have a job in engineering as a project engineer, specializing in document management system implementation atm and 3D CAD admin tasks.

I'm into sports: fitness, tennis, cycling(spring summer, early fall), mountainbiking (during fall, winter, early spring)

I'm into music: Play the saxophone (intermediate level), play in a windband with weekly rehearsals through the year, play in a coverband, transcribe/arrange music for said coverband, transcribe/arrange music for wind band when necessary (to make others life easier).

I'm into community work/activities:

• Chairman/director of a wind band (+/- 30ppl) but only active through november through february
• One of the leaders of a club of something that resembles scouts (without badges etc.) leaders for a group of kids aged 13/14. (good for my creativity). with weekly meetings of 1.5hr.
• Member of the general board of that sort of scouts club, and member of the committee responsible for onboarding and training new scout leaders (most of those we get out of 18 y/o "kids" that want keep part of the club)

oh and I have friends and famliy!

I dont know if its hard for me to act on the ideas or that I'm scared shitless to actually do anything with the ideas. Or scared to give one of the above up. I'm still figuring that out for myself. As you can see that I do have quite a broad network of ppl. But I'm also afraid of going serious on an idea and being ridiculed in said network. So I've got some shit to work out, but that would be obvious by only counting the "I's" in this post.

I think you nailed it on the head. It's difficult to give an idea the focus it needs if you are busy doing other things all day. You only have so much time in a day! Your competitors will be giving their business 12 hour days, and it sounds like you may only have 15 minutes before bed.

I just wrote a post on motivation HERE. By the sounds of it, your situation is likely the type of situation that would benefit the most from it. On the other hand, it may also be hardest for you to do something like it. I am guessing if your schedule is so full of things it is because you really enjoy doing those things. Why change a good thing if your life is so full and you are happy with it? You can live a full happy life without running a business. But while you can do anything, you can't do everything. So you should try to decide. Are you happy with your full life? If so, then enjoy! If you are not...Then maybe you are right and you are just scared to let go of things that aren't making you happy. Now you know what to work on.

 

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[Busy24s]

The most obvious answer is stop switching from idea to idea and focus on your top one. But it's also a useless answer since you already know that but it's likely just difficult to do with your natural disposition. I call these "fool yourself" problems, because my solution is to try and figure out ways to fool myself into doing what you know needs to be done.

Here's one example idea that could work for you. Think about ways that may tie you to an idea. If you had a job that was given to you by your boss, you wouldn't go and do something completely different right? So fool yourself into that situation. Think of your primary idea as a job given to you by your career boss.

Pick a few of your favorite ideas and disregard all the rest. Then either pick what you believe best fits CENTS or if you can't pick then toss a coin. From there on in commit to the idea to both yourself and publicly. That may mean starting a progress thread on here saying you have X idea and here is my progress. Then you answer to not just yourself but others as well.

When other ideas creep up, thats all well and dandy. You can even write them down. But just like if you were working for someone else, dont steal your work time to work on non-work jobs. You are working on the current idea not because its the best, but because it was the job given to you. (Thinking of it this way may short circuit the shiny new idea syndrome). You will work on your GREAT new shiny idea after you finish with your work.

Obviously, at some point, it's not worthwhile to keep working on an idea that isn't working. But considering your disposition, work on it much longer than you think you should. You should give each idea anywhere from days to weeks of dedicated research/action before reconsidering it's viability.

What a great response, I'm certainly not the only one who benefitted from this analogy.

Thanks!

 

[focusedlife]

Question - what do you do when you have so many ideas that it is extremely overwhelming and paralyzing sometimes?

I'm constantly seeing new ideas that seem soo good and sometimes the thoughts of ideas and which idea to execute on puts me in a state of mind where I can't even work at all because I don't want to put time into the wrong thing.

Every time this happens, I find myself wasting tons of time, and constantly switching tasks, which tends to ruin my focus..

And as a result.. I find myself slowly "switching back to team consumer" (which really bothers me mentally) because taking in more information is the only thing I feel I can do for the day. For me there seems to be ups and downs switching from producer to consumer in monthly periods because of either not knowing what to do or having too much to do slows me down dramatically.

Any tips?

Thanks!

If you haven't read it yet, gotta check out the book "Building a Second Brain" by Tiago Forte.

It's all about helping you capture and have rapid access to flitering ideas.

Basically, in this day and age of dynamic Smart Tech and such, why don't we learn how to properly harness this stuff, take some strain off our brain effectively, efficiently with a simple system?

When paired with the Notepd.com 10 ideas a day thing, turn yourself into an idea machine and nothing gets lost... ever.

I dunno.

I feel like it's helped a lot.

 

[NeoDialectic]

If you haven't read it yet, gotta check out the book "Building a Second Brain" by Tiago Forte.

It's all about helping you capture and have rapid access to flitering ideas.

Basically, in this day and age of dynamic Smart Tech and such, why don't we learn how to properly harness this stuff, take some strain off our brain effectively, efficiently with a simple system?

When paired with the Notepd.com 10 ideas a day thing, turn yourself into an idea machine and nothing gets lost... ever.

I dunno.

I feel like it's helped a lot.

Thanks for the recommendation, looks like it's pretty good. Added it to my list of books to read (or rather, listen to).

I've been pretty good at making notes on important to-do tasks or important specific ideas. However I've always wanted to expand the breathe of my note taking.

 

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[Vasudev Soni]

Having trouble generating ideas? Don’t see any problems to solve? Most peoples problem is that they aren’t truly in the producer mindset yet. So that should definitely be the first thing to solve.

However I've found that some people do suffer from a less talked about roadblock. You could simply be a boring person! Haha. OK, maybe that is a little harsh. But the truth is that life can get so busy sometimes that we stop doing hobbies and other activities that open the door to even encountering opportunity. Depending on your occupation, you may only be exposed to problems there that are much bigger projects than you are willing to commit to. If all you do is work your 9-5, eat & sleep then your opportunity to bump into a problem is being stifled.

I know what it's like. When I just had my young children, most of my hobbies stopped for a period of time. So all of a sudden, my world got a lot smaller. I want to stress that this isn't an excuse not to act, as I could still have encountered and come up with something in the baby world. But the more you are out there experiencing different facets of life, the better your chances are of bumping into something.

So if you feel light on ideas, go out in the world and have some fun! Reignite that photography interest you had in college. Check back in on your favorite firearm forums. Start trying out hot sauces again. Sign back up with your local yoga studio. Hobbies are a great way to become an expert in something while not having the same motivational issues as work does. The fun and your interest sustains the motivation. This time around, make sure to bring in your producer mindset and keep everything you learned in TMF in mind.

The great part about diving back into an old hobby is that you can pick it up fast but come at it with a fresh perspective. Stay on the lookout for things people complain about on the forums. Notice things you have to jury-rig to make work properly in your hobby. For example, before the selfie stick (I know, I know, an abomination!) people would have to find random things in the scenary to rest their camera on or rely on other people. A cheap stick that holds a camera, turned into a million dollar idea.

So climb out from underneath that rock and expose yourself to the real world!

That’s some really good advice. Go out and start noticing things with the producer mindset.

 

[WJK]

I read this thread and wondered... Should I be deciding what I wanna be when I grow up? I'll only be 70 this winter...

Seriously, my world is full of ideas and opportunities. There are way too many to even consider.

I've been trying to weed out my side gigs to make more time in my life for fun stuff. I'm like Andy Black. I have too much going on.

I have a Federal contract that is ending next spring. I'm not bidding on it again. I applied for another State license. That department is a pain in the a$$, so I'll do activities that fall under the exceptions rather than continue to apply for the license. There's a lot I can do without it. I'm delegating a lot more of my normal jobs and chores for the businesses and cutting my working days and hours.

For additional ideas, I'm going back to some from years ago. Some of the simplest ones are still the best.