Do you need a:

• Solution?
• Product?
• Book topic?
• Idea for a painting?
• Whole new chapter in your life?

A guru or mountain retreat may help. However, on an ongoing basis, the #1 tool for creating something new is this:

Openness.

Oh shoot, you may be thinking—I was hoping for something specific—something I could do or do differently right now.

Openness is a particular state of mind we need to learn or re-learn in order to create something new. Consider this process:

1. Take yourself out of the hot seat. Like a lion in the wild, a great idea isn’t going to respond to your efforts to hunt it down. Going after it with struggle, strain and stress will only cause it to run and hide.

Instead, affirm the truth that God is the Creator and source of all that is new and good. We are here to be co-creators with Him. Our role is to get in the flow.

2. Acknowledge your inner obstacles: fear of failure, angst over what people think, frustration, anger, resignation, preconceived ideas, discouragement, etc. Acknowledge them in order to set them aside. Then…

4. Set the aim of your heart and mind to be open. Think quiet, rest and clearing a wide space inside you.

5. Let the thoughts come. All of them. Freely, without judgment or inhibition.

6. Capture your thoughts—write, type, sketch, chart, speak them into a recorder—whatever works for you to welcome and collect every thought.

7. Work with the thoughts to:

a) Expand them: make sub-thoughts and add details

b) Prioritize: which ones show promise?

c) Gently woo the key ideas into full blossoming.

8. Your gem is there.

9. Rinse. Repeat.

What do J.K. Rowling, Apple Computer, Inc. and Seth Godin have in common? They know how to walk around with their minds and hearts stuck open. Openness is a way of life. As a result, their fount of new and cool ideas is inexhaustible.

But God has no favorites. You and I can get in the flow and live there too.

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photo credit: smileham (creative commons)

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Gloria Rose, Life Coach

Gloria@gloriarose.com

@gloriabethrose