Secret Two
Sift Through Your Ideas to Get Heart-Focused
“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.”
—Helen Keller
EMBRACE YOUR FLOW OF IDEAS
I was recently searching for my winter clothes; I found my fluffy white suede jacket and threw it on to go to a meeting. After I got home, I was digging business cards out of my pockets and discovered this quote from a fortune cookie:
“Ideas not coupled with action never become bigger than the brain cells they occupied.”
How timely for me, and for all of us with creative ideas popping in our heads. I just cleaned out some file drawers and found papers with all kinds of ideas written on them—book ideas, marketing ideas, big vision ideas, joint venture ideas, watercolor painting ideas, and the list goes on. I put all those papers in a pile (after putting many pages in the recycling bin) and it is now one and a half feet high.
I noted that some of these ideas were written down numerous times and some of them I didn't remember writing at all. My first reaction to this pile was dread. Yet, I stood back from this pile and gave thanks instead.
Many years ago, I took the Johnson O'Connor Aptitude Tests and scored in the 99th percentile on ideaphoria—the rapid flow of ideas. I like to define the word as the ability to generate lots of thoughts and ideas quickly. It is an experience where one feels a constant onslaught of new ideas, creating a euphoric state of idea creation. I should mention that I flunked spatial relations with blocks, which is why I never became an interior designer on the side, even though I love color. My ideaphoria is a true gift—I suspect many of you reading this book have it as well—yet it has to be managed.
It's all about choices. From this abundance of ideas, I get to choose which ones I will do this year and which ones I will postpone until next year or three years from now. Some of these ideas will never happen—I don't have enough time to dance with them all. People with ideaphoria have to learn to take action and execute their ideas, not just let them sit in piles. Idea books and idea folders are wonderful tools. But at some point, we have to use our good sense and intuition and commit to a plan of action and explore one or more of the ideas to their fullest.
This past year I moderated a panel on “The Next Big Idea” for the Massachusetts Women's Conference. We talked about how to activate our ideas and then craft them into something original and useful. Your ideas are your most valuable asset. Write them down somewhere, review them regularly, and tune into which ones you are most passionate about. Be thankful that your brain clicks into gear and that you think of new ideas. Even if they are wild and crazy, these ideas may lead you somewhere.
Each year, in the quiet of December, I take my pile of ideas and select those treasures that are calling to me the most for the coming year. These ideas will be cultivated and nourished. And I will take a moment to express my gratitude for these ideas. I will also carefully make a new file for the next batch for the following year.
I recently purchased four new, lovely, ivory wooden file cabinets with sixteen file drawers for my office. It was a reluctant purchase, since we already have file cabinets all over the house that have been cleared out of junk. But I had to face the fact that I needed these new files to be truly organized. My husband put them together for me, and then I had two wonderful women take my piles of papers (we right-brainers like to make piles so that we can see things, but then we spend too much time going through the piles and get overwhelmed) and make several hundred new folders with printed labels. They put the piles into files where they should be. My desk is now clear except for my Treasure Map of goals, which I use as a blotter, and a small, three-shelf tray with current to-dos.
I feel immense relief, but I do have to remind myself to check the files regularly so that I don't lose touch with the gems in them. As a writer, I collect articles of interest and research about things I want to write about, and I have files on book ideas, book marketing, social media, all of my clippings from fifty-plus magazines and other periodicals, business articles for my clients, and so on. This is valuable information to save. I religiously throw out and recycle anything I can. So while it is a lot of paper, I bless these files now because they are my creative resources, not something to be embarrassed about, especially since they are now organized. Know that your ideas are the keys to your creative gifts and service in this world.
I must sheepishly add here that when I interviewed Shama Kabani, the award-winning online marketing expert who was named one of the Top 25 Entrepreneurs Under Age 25 by BusinessWeek in 2009 and is the President of the Marketing Zen Group, she told me that she does not do anything with paper. Shama said, “No, I can't remember the last time I wrote something. The only time I hold a pen is when I sign checks. If someone wants to send me something, I ask them to please send it digitally because I don't want any paper. I don't have an office and I don't have anywhere to keep it. Even when I get business cards, I take pictures of them, and then throw away the cards.” I know for me, and for many of my older clients and the older women that I interviewed for this book, we grew up with paper and real books, and still work that way. Even when I write, I have to print each chapter out on paper; sometimes I even use different colors, because the words look different on the printed page than they do on the laptop screen. I take my hat off to Shama and her generation for being able to really work paperlessly.
MANAGING IDEAPHORIA
Ideaphoria is also called divergent thinking. Many jobs, careers, and educational programs teach the opposite model, convergent thinking, which is critical thinking. This is the kind of critical and logical thinking used to evaluate ideas and choices. The SATs are convergent, which is why many brilliant idea people don't do well on them. In fact, there is one study that indicates that teachers do not enjoy working with divergent thinkers. That is interesting, because Johnson O'Connor themselves write that “the best trait of a teacher is ideaphoria.” Ideaphoria is an important aspect of creativity, but originality, flexibility, and elaboration are important too. The ideaphoria part is often about word association, fantasy, storytelling, and analogies, linking unrelated things.
The challenge for people with ideaphoria is choosing what to focus on and getting it done without changing your mind or moving on to a new project. Focus and execution are key skills that those of us with ideaphoria need to learn. People with ideaphoria can often have multiple careers—copywriters, novelists, teachers, inventors, designers, entrepreneurs, artists, sales people, marketers—any career where they can express their rapid, ceaseless flow of ideas. Therefore, they may have erratic career paths, feel unfocused, have closets full of unfinished projects, and may not stay with things long enough to be successful with them. Successful people open the windows of opportunity to generate ideas and then close the windows securely to evaluate those ideas. People with ideaphoria see connections among things that other people don't see. They are big picture people, change agents, generalists, and can have trouble specializing. This can hurt them financially, as they need to settle down and work on one thing at a time and not get distracted. Barbara Sher refers to people with ideaphoria as “scanners.” When I see clients with ideaphoria, I try to brainstorm with them about ways to have what I call “umbrella careers” that combine a variety of things that they love to do. But they have to focus on a limited number of projects at a time. Being an entrepreneur can be a good route, as you have flexibility and can focus on the big picture, but you need to have people to help you execute your vision.
Highly creative people quite often have ideaphoria combined with strong intuitive skills, high emotional intelligence, and a keen
