*Image Credit: Fish

Ok so I am bit short on ideas at the moment.  But after my last post and some work I nailed during the week… I got to thinking.  How powerful are concepts in our lives?

A concept

Academic Peter Checkland coined the phrase, “a framework of ideas” to describe really what a concept is.  I think in our lives there are all kinds of ideas we make use of on a daily basis.   We have concepts of family, concepts of community, concepts of society and so on.  A concept is really a set of ideas.  Take the current media hype about petrol prices.   We have a concept of crisis that’s framing those issues at the moment.

Using another concept to create tension

Let’s now express the problem as an opportunity.  What opportunities could come from the high price of petrol?  More ethanol, hydrogen?  What about a new concept?  What about teleportation?  No need for fuel or even parking vouchers.  Just zap and you are there.  How about more working from home solutions… more flexible working hours… cars that run off water.   Every crisis breeds opportunity!

The concepts of what we think stuff is

In life there are things we build up in our minds that tell us what stuff is.  There are people, places and things that demand our conceptual attention.  Say for example you are an upwardly mobile single person who is getting older and older.  You have no partner and desperately want one.  What’s your concept of the future?  Do you see my point.  Why not start thinking ‘opportunity’ instead of ‘crisis’.

So here we are for some reason talking about change of concepts.  I am wondering if this blog would survive without commentaries… probably not.  That said, this was an interesting post and as I wrote it I realised… I need to use better concepts of the future… at the very least!

I have heard many people say that they don’t think they are creative. Rubbish! You are creative. You have creativity inside of you for something. Most of us live our lives without ever using the creative ability that we have been given. Here’s a little test you can take to see what your creativity lies in.

Keeping an ideas book

Ideas are like gold to those that capture them. Consider this quote from eclectic film director David Lynch:

“The ideas dictate everything, you have to be true to that or you’re dead.” courtesy of: Think Exist.

What do you have ideas about? I didn’t realise that I had so many ideas about various things until I started writing them down. As I began to study the ideas, I noticed how I could use them in my work. Some of them helped me to understand issues I was having with other people and so on. You may really like gardening. There will be moments throughout the day when your ideas about gardening will come to you. Do yourself a favour and write down that idea. You will forget it if you don’t!

What to do with your ideas once you write them down

Make a commitment to follow them through. Even if you can’t do it right now make plans to do it soon. The ideas you follow through on you probably wouldn’t have if you hadn’t of written them down! I know, it sounds stupid but keeping an ideas book helped me to gain an edge in my life and I know if you do it in yours it will help you too.