Here is perhaps the most powerful creative thinking tool ever discovered. It is so simple and effective that people are always amazed when they try it out. It is called “Mindstorming.”
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The process of mindstorming forces you to concentrate all of your mental abilities, like a laser beam, on a single problem until it is solved. Here is how it works.
Take a blank sheet of paper and at the top of the page write out your major goal or problem in the form of a question. Make the question as specific as you possibly can.
For example, instead of writing something like, “How can I make more money?” you would write a specific question, such as, “What can I do to earn $75,000 over the next 12 months?”
Whatever your question, you then discipline yourself to write down 20 answers to the question. This exercise can take you anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes. But once you begin, you must force yourself to stay at the exercise until you have generated at least 20 answers.
The first 3 to 5 answers will be relatively easy. The next 3 to 5 answers will be much harder. And the final 10 answers, at least the first time that you perform this exercise will be extraordinarily difficult. Many people’s eyes glaze over and they become a little faint as they force themselves through the last of the 20 answers.
I have worked with teams of people teaching this exercise. To my amazement many of the students found the answer to a problem that had been blocking them for many months in the 20th answer. This is why it is important that you write at least 20 answers to the question.
When you have completed your 20 answers, you then go back over your answers and you select the one task or activity that seems the most logical for you to implement immediately. This is very important. When you immediately implement one of your 20 new ideas, something seems to happen that stimulates you into implementing many of your other ideas as well. And the faster you take action on one of these ideas, the more creative you will be for hours and even days afterwards.
DO IT NOW!