boz @bozwood: how do you decide on a given day what ideas to come up with? whatever u happen to be interested in or some other way?
Answer:
Today I came up with two lists. One a list of novels I want to write. I want to write a thriller novel. Something that would be entertaining to people. I like to entertain.
The next list was a list of people I need to introduce to each other. If I really think about how two people can deliver value to each other, I make money by being in the middle if I introduce them. Good things will happen. Even if it’s not so obvious immediately how I will make money, I know that the secret of business is that when you create opportunities for other people, you indirectly create opportunity for yourself.
I may never write a novel. I may never introduce any of these people to each other. It was hard to come up with ten ideas for both lists. Maybe I will introduce some of the people. Maybe I will start but not finish a novel. Maybe I will just write on these Q&As. Who knows?
All I wanted to do was sweat the brain. This way when I really need to use my idea muscle: to save a life, to make my life more peaceful, to make money, to get myself out of a bad situation, to respond to a difficult situation, I know my brain will be up for the task. I don’t need to save the lists. A good idea gets tattooed onto the subconscious.
The important thing is: I made the lists. I exercised my brain. Now I have to do the other things:
Physical: Eat well, sleep well, stay in shape. Take a walk. Exercise. Cheryl Strayed, author of “Wild” said the other day in an interview: “I challenge you to walk 20 minutes and not feel better at the end of it.”
Emotional: Only be around people who love me. Only respond to people who love me. Only respond to people I love. For me, it’s easy to get bogged down in destructive criticism instead of spending time with the people I love.
Spiritual: Surrender to the moment. Understand that I can’t control everything around me. Be grateful for what I have. Be blessed that I can enjoy the small things in this moment.
Mental: I did it: the Idea lists.
All four “bodies” work together. There’s a blood, a life force, that goes back and forth between all four bodies. You are at the center of that life force. If you don’t take care of all four bodies then the “blood” is blocked. You get the daily practice version of a heart attack. Your ideas won’t be as good. Or you won’t sleep. Or the people around you will bring you down. Or people will betray you. Or you will betray them. Or you simply die.
It’s a daily practice for a reason – because every day there are things happening in your life that will try to form a blockage of the life force that flows between these bodies.
Your ONLY job in life is keep the blood flowing between all four bodies every moment.
Then you will know what to do. What ideas to work on. What people to associate with. What words to say. I originally wrote about this in a post called “how to be the luckiest person alive” because it’s true. Luck happens when everything flows naturally between the four bodies. You shouldn’t even acknowledge it as luck. Because “luck” implies that it is something out of the ordinary. Your luck will come from a source that never goes away.