ALOT OF MY ‘NEW LIFE’ IS SPENT RUMINATING, I admit, though sometimes while doing something else (mowing, driving, weeding, showering—you know how it works). Even if I were merely sitting still and pondering, I’d consider those stretches very productive, since they yield my inspiration. So when the subject of where ideas come from came up on a top blog the other day, I took notice. A great link—and a chance to win an advance copy giveaway of my upcoming book.
For me, author-marketer-entrepreneur-creative thinker Seth Godin hit the nail on the head in his list “Where Do Ideas Come From” last week, when he reached Number 12:
“Ideas come from nature.”
So many of mine—ones that guide the way I live or the things I write or do—come from what I have learned in my relationship with the outdoors, and the examples it sets (whether its intricacies of design or its insistent, inescapable cycles). A lot of “And I Shall Have Some Peace There” is about those “aha’s.”
A lot of the other sources Godin cited—that ideas come from trouble, for instance, and sometimes from fear but more often from confidence, also resonated. Read his list of 20 sources of ideas.
Then tell us where your ideas come from (or just say “Count me in.” or, “I want to win the book!” if you’re feeling shy) and on Saturday, December 11, I’ll select a winner at random and send them an advance reading copy of “Peace,” due out in February for real.
I loved Katie Doan’s description above. I honestly couldn’t think where my ideas come from till I read her description and thought, yes that’s it! Something from the past connects with something from the now and WHAMMO!
Look forward to reading your book very much!
My good ideas come when I’m reading magazines, books, blogs, or attending seminars, but my BEST ideas come in quite moments such as knitting, sewing, and gardening. Most often it is the mundane, repetitive tasks like weeding that provide the opportunity for the seed of an idea to find fertile brain cells and germinate.
oops, that should be quiet, not quite.
My ideas come from mistakes. I have learned more from them than anything. My book would be The Mistakes I have Made and What I Learned from Them.
Like a couple other like-minded souls, my best ideas and solutions come to me in the shower. I’ve always figured that it was because there are no distractions and my mind is essentially “open” as I go through the routine/doitinmysleep task at hand.
As I get a wee bit older, :-) I find it very important to write those same ideas and solutions down just as soon as I’m dried off. I do keep a small notebook and pen in a drawer in the bathroom for just such occasions!
Some of my best ideas have come while washing dishes, watering the garden, or taking a shower. Maybe it’s the water. I just sort of zone out and stuff just pops into my brain!!!
Merry Christmas, Margaret!!!
I love to look at magazines, art, nature, other people’s houses, fabric, fashion for ideas. When I’m working or playing, usually ruminating, kismet and my work flow create the magic.
I agree with Seth in #8: ideas come through awareness. I’d go a step further and say, for me, ideas come when I can find quiet, be quiet and make room for observation–including listening to others, to Nature, and to the humming and buzzing within.
Cheers, Margaret.
My best ideas come when I’m just sitting — a pastime sadly neglected. If I can sit and ruminate — that’s when the most productive ideas come forth. Waiting, waiting, waiting for the book to come out!
I agree with Phyllis! I hope I win!
… the shower, dreams, staring out the window, wandering mind during a boring talk.
Please, please, consider me for winning this book. I will give it with my 91 year old friend Margie Broyhill, who gardened extravagantly in Alaska, Washington and California for over 75 years before osteoporosis forced her move to a “senior” apartment house. But, she still pampers her houseplants lovingly, and would love a book like this!
Sincerely,
Benita Bowen
I don’t know where my ideas come from… perhaps from the subconscious, from dreams, from wisps of ideas floating around me…
I find that I get inspiration direct from natural forms, but ideas on how to use images come at the time when my brain is switched off – like when I’m brushing my teeth, or some other mindless acticity!
My best ideas come from when I’m exercising or cooking or knitting. I can let my mind wander and then focus on things that I’m too distracted otherwise to think about.
Inspiration comes from all of my life experiences; childhood, my garden ; my trees; my love of animals especially my dogs.; all things vintage and how they can be used or repurposed. The time in my garden takes me to a place where I let go of all the day to day stuff and inspiration just seems to appear….
for me ideas come when just sitting enjoying a glass of wine and listening to some great music……that is when the mind starts to travel…..or when I am into a cleaning spree – boring work makes the mind wander ….. or how about mowing the grass following the lines of the previous mowed row….mind always wanders and whooo what ideas can spring up
A as I get older, my sleep patterns seem to have changed and I’m often waking up in the middle of the night. Oddly enough, I seem to come up with the best ideas during these times, especially when it comes to my garden! I would love to win your book Margaret, but if I don’t I will certainly be buying it next year.
I just love this website and I’de love to win a copy of your book…………..M.
I am thedawngardener not just because I often work early in the day, but because most of my ideas, insights, dreams and visions (and sadly, yes, also my worries and fears) come in those underwater moments between sleep and full awakening and just at, or right before, dawn. I have learned to embrace those mid-life periods of wakefulness that plague so many women as the time of the day when my mind is freer than at any other time.
I seem to collect miscellaneous data constantly, a bit here, a bit there. Those bits jumble together and create associations when I’m driving. It is as though the parts of my brain that are focused on keeping me safe and aware allow those bits of information to freely regroup, configuring new ideas and solutions. It’s pretty fascinating actually.
Thanks for the question and the opportunity.
Books, nature, magazines, dreams, life! Though, I don’t know that I have been able to really let my creativity loose. I think I restrict my creativity quite a bit.
I am always amazed at the ideas that arise when I am lying in corpse pose following a great yoga class-they arise out of the stillness when I am not thinking at all!
My ideas come to me on my daily mornng walks, the sorta me time with no interruptions.
Very often my ideas come from quiet moments when I’m sitting still and looking around the backyard. At times I get ideas from looking at beautiful gardens and hearing stories about people and their adventures. Quite frankly I start my day with a cup of coffee and a glance at the yard, then read a Psalm. I know each day is a blessing and if the sparrow doesn’t have to worry then neither do I.
my best ideas come to me while drinking my morning coffee and looking out at my garden from a second story birds eye view.
Now I often find that ideas cross-polinate. I teach music and voice, and often find parallels in my garden and vice versa. The expression “steal shamelessly” comes to mind when advising students to listen, listen, listen to the artists and music and find their own voice. I think of that when visiting beautiful gardens and trying to capture some aspect in my own little patch. And yes, I too would love to win that book. ;-)
I get my best ideas early in the morning when only the cats and I are awake.
I get a lot of ideas while walking along the Oregon Coast. I think they come from the negative ions found there?
I get my best ideas from children and the elderly people. Also would love to read your book. My father is 81yrs old and he told me the other day, the first time he ever saw an airplane was when he was out in the field helping his mom and dad when about 6 airplanes flew overhead and he asked his parents what they were,this was in 1941. Love your show.
I get ideas from my young children. They are not bound by practicality, pragmatism or even the laws of physics. They dream BIG and in full color and detail. We play imagining games and create worlds where jelly beans grows on trees, etc. I get a lot of great ideas from creative play with them.
I can say WHEN my ideas come to me, but not from WHERE. When I’m on that 2+ hr drive from NYC to Ghent- weekly. Winding my way along the Taconic Parkway while keeping a look out for marauding deer my mind wanders everywhere. The trick is to keep the Subaru on the road while I take mental journeys around and through life’s questions, my questions. I would love a copy of your new book!
Inspiration comes from all around me…my dogs, my favorite magazines and websites, definitely while mowing or weeding, or doing dishes. It never comes in the midst of stress, only in peace.
My ideas come at night, when I can’t wait for morning to come so I can go back out to my garden. In my head, I am weeding and tearing into some ignored flower bed and some great idea will suddenly hit me and then I can’t wait to go do it. Night’s are such a waist of time in the summer.
i get most ideas when i am content and at peace.
when i watch the first lights in the morning sky or witness that moment when the sun sets over the mountains, these are moments which renew & inspire.
every day brings new ideas.
I always get ideas while walking….I used to get great ones FOR work while walking on my lunch break! But I don’t think the ideas come FROM walking….
The thoughts/dreams/processes/”ahas” that come to you while walking, or driving, or weeding, or canning tomatoes, are all products of mindfulness. Mindfulness of a more-or-less mechanical function, like washing dishes or jogging, while engaging both sides of your brain and firing multiple synapses, somehow FREES UP the more intuitive part of both sides of your brain. You engage the mundane, but you liberate the sublime. Prayer, meditation, davening—it’s all the same…a pathway to intuition.
Ideas? EVERYWHERE!
Please enter me in this giveaway. Thanks!
seizethebookblog(at)gmail(dot)com
I’m really interested in seeing and reading your book. I’ll do it if I win it or if I don’t.
Ideas come from within. They come after I’ve used logic and made lists, done all the
counting and anagramming my brain is full of. Sometimes they come just as I wake up
and sometimes they may come in dreams. But they always contain something I didn’t consciously put there.
Chris
i think ideas are spun when we need them and are made from all of the threads that make up the fabric of our life.
i so wish i could paint that or create it with a fantastic photo shoot.
i am thrilled for you that the book has been written, and published, and you got to see the mock up and then hold your very own book. congratulations. i so look forward to reading it. my money diet will have it sooner if i am lucky and win it.
i always smile when i see you in the in box and i take my breaks with you all week.
charlotte
Any where, any time, ideas just pop into my head…you can imagine the lightbulb over my head turning on! Thank you for this website…and the book! Peace!
I would love to win the book!
Ideas cook…they give little hints and suggestions over a couple of hours meeting or a few hours sleep or a couple of days brewing in the back of the head; then they bubble up to the surface, ready to share.
I would love a preview copy of your book – your blog is lovely:-)
COMMENTS ARE NOW CLOSED. Using the tool on random.org, I’ll select and notify the winner this morning…and then prepare another opportunity to win and early copy of my book and some other favorites shortly. Stay tuned.
I keep mine in the freezer, behind the frozen pot pies.
I’m sending comment again because I hope I win the books! Last time I submitted it said I already sent a comment, when I didn’t! Hope this one sticks and becomes a winner! Very much look forward to reading your soon to be published book – one way or the other!