A Simple Exercise to Generate Ideas, Train Concentration and Mindfulness

A three-in-one-benefit exercise for writers and creative people.

There’s no shortage of ideas because ideas are all around us. What we lack is the ability to recognize the vast swam of ideas flying all around.

It’s not uncommon that some writers complain “I can’t think anything to write”. That’s might be true, but that’s not for a lack or shortage of ideas but because we don’t know how to recognize ideas that are always within the reach of anyone who cares enough to clearly define ideas to recognize them.

The first step to finding anything is to clearly define it.

What ideas really are, have been hidden in the language and terms we use in defining or describing them ourselves or in the terms and language passed to us by others.

“We can keep knowledge from those who would use it by locking it up, but we can also hide facts and ideas behind language so impenetrable that only those trained in its use can find them.” — Joseph Williams, Style Toward Clarity and Grace.

And so we are in the dark not knowing what ideas are even when they are, all the time, within our reach. So, we suffer for not knowing rather than from a lack or shortage of ideas.

So what’s an idea?

An idea is a thought with potential to inspire, instruct, guide, or teach. In other words, an idea is a thought pregnant with inspiration, instructions, guidance or lessons.

An idea is a thought with potential.

And writing is … essentially nothing more than exploring and revealing the potentials of an idea. If you can explore and then reveal — in written words — what you could derive from an idea, then you can write, passing that knowledge to your readers or audience.

That said, here’s a source of ideas many writers are unaware of:

“Quotes”…

…the ‘thoughtful thoughts’, opinions, and observations of great philosophers, Scientists, Inventors, Writers,…

Those few-sentence words are ideas that can inspire your mind, teach you the ways of life, guide your path to the good life, and instruct you on various issues of life.

A quote captures a lesson, an inspiration, a guide in few sentences. And so are pregnant with them. Only those who take the discipline to ruminate over them get the secret potentials they contain.

Let me teach you a simple system so you never lack an idea for your creative writing:

Feed your mind a new thoughtful thought — a quote — each morning and ruminate over it in your private hours as you go about your day.

As you return home by evening, regurgitate and reflect on the questions, answers, puzzle or opinions from the noble exercise. Write them down in your journal.

As you do, your mind will wander from the thought several times than you can imagine. But, each time your mind wanders, take it by the neck back to the thought and concentrate again.

“I do not care what you concentrate on, so long as you concentrate. It’s the mere disciplining of the thinking machine that counts. But still you may as well kill two birds with one stone, and concentrate on something useful. I suggest- it is only a suggestion -a little chapter of Marcus Aurelius or Epictetus. — Arnold Bennett, How to Live on 24 Hours a Day.

Do this every day. You can skip the weekend if you may — you may deserve the break — and then watch what happens.

The simple daily exercise will not only fetch you ideas for your creative work, but it also improves your ability to concentrate and be mindful and present. And before long, you will become a reference — like Ryan Holiday, Benjamin Hardy, Ph.D. Shannon Ashley, Anthony Moore, Thomas Plummer — even in the community of the top-tiered creative people.

I encourage you to make this simple daily exercise a habit, bearing in mind that those thoughtful thoughts have the potentials to inspire, instruct, guide and teach you something about life, you will never lack ideas. And what you learn, you can then share with others.

Till our paths cross again, I leave you with yet a thoughtful thought by Arnold Bennett:

“And without the power to concentrate — that is to say, without the power to dictate to the brain its task and to ensure obedience — true existence is impossible. Mind control is the first element of a full existence.”

You’ll also find these articles very interesting and, yes, thoughtful — filled with ideas: