Looking for a new idea for the year?

I was asked where the best ideas come from - so here is a quick grouping of simplistic ideas.

The most common idea zone is reading. Reading is how I keep my mind fully engaged and busy. Reading, is how you keep your brain conditioned and fit. Much like an athlete training, the more you read, the more mentally fit you become.

Reading constantly generates idea after idea, because you are pumping in new ideas and your critical faculties filter them for value. If I stop reading even for 2 days my brain feels like it is slowing down.

A few tips below can make Touching & Scratching, Sniffing, Licking, Listening & Looking a bit more manageable. Keep mentally fit and emotionally in-shape otherwise you could get out of practice. Innovation takes longer when you’re rusty and emotionally flaccid. A downhill ski champion performs better if she is fit and in shape - ideas arise faster if you regularly exercise your ability.

Look only in the Best Places. Inspiration for good food comes in top restaurant kitchens not fast food chains or diners. I go immediately to the best people and examine their best works. It will raise the quality of ideas you uncover.

Never dig the same hole twice. You achieve little new by retracing your steps over already familiar territory. If you act the same way all the time, you’ll end up in the same spot all the time.

Creativity is about unleashing furious mindless energy and watching it. Eventually a spark will fly from all that contact and energy — and it usually does.

Scratching, Sniffing, Licking, Listening & Looking is the act where an idea is conceived. Be passionate about it! If you try to regulate it, you’re faking it!