An Idea.

An Idea. 

An idea is delicate. It can be killed by a sneer or a yawn. it can be stabbed to death by a quip and worried to death by a frown on the right person’s brow. If we don’t express original ideas or listen to our being, we will betray ourselves.

They originate from pregnant minds, just as babies emerge from the bellies of their mothers. What makes a mind fertile is the freedom to venture without the confines of traditional thinking or the burden of practical concerns.

It is an expression of thought through words. When we speak to others, we are transferring our thoughts away from our minds through the vehicle of our voice. We are transmitting our thoughts to others. Knowledge is the transfer of ideas through speaking, listening and reading. 

Origin.

• Ideas often originate from dialogues in which we hear about a challenge and recognise a new path for solving it. It is, therefore, crucial to creating a space in which challenges are discussed openly and without fear, stimulating new solutions. 

• Everything we see began as an idea: the credit card, the internet, the computer, Antibiotics, Airplane, and the company we keep. Even the Universe, some say, began as an idea in the mind of the Creator.

• We tend to get ideas in the shower because it offers us vacation time from interruptions associated with our daily duties. Without vacations from distractions, ideas are scarce. Vacations are sometimes defined by what we escape from more than what we offer as a substitute. 

• Imagine how amazing an idea could be if it had the space to grow, people had time to explore its opportunities and could demonstrate how their idea could add more value to our world.

• The recipe starts with creating a culture that encourages informal questioning and inquiry, tolerates mistakes and promotes innovation. But even fertile soil cannot guarantee blossoming vegetation without seeds.

Doubts.

• We all have an inner stream of thoughts and feelings that include criticism, doubt, and fear. That’s our mind doing the job it is designed to do by trying to anticipate and solve problems and avoid potential pitfalls.

• Doubt casts itself upon us like a spell and can rip our happiness away from us if we are not prepared. Fear is one thing, but doubt and overpowering self-consciousness that leads to a lack of confidence and self-happiness can destroy us if we let it.

• Our minds tend to daydream about the future state or beat ourselves up for how we messed up in the past, instead of focusing on what we can do right now to improve.

• Afraid we will be judged, or worse, fail, we toss them out long before their time. Like Jack’s mother, of Beanstalk fame, we throw our magic beans out the window, doubting they had any real value in the first place.

• Many excellent ideas were lost due to neglect. In analogy with start-up companies, a good idea must be followed up by a feasibility study that evaluates its promise and nurtures its further growth if it appears promising. 

• Risks are inevitable because in the dense fog of innovation we cannot tell if we are facing a plateau, a steep hill or a cliff just a few steps ahead. But once successful, a single excellent idea could be worth the investment in a hundred failed ones.

Attitude.

• Positivity is a process of creating thoughts that transform our energy into reality. The more optimistic we are about life, the happier we become in life. It is a key to a longer and more fulfilling life. Our body produces higher levels of endorphins, serotonin, and dopamine – feel-good chemicals that boost our mood and help zap stress.

• Negativity is a process of creating thoughts where we tend to find the worst in everything or reduce our expectations by considering the worst possible scenarios. It increases our body’s cortisol levels (Stress Hormones), which can lead to unhappiness, depression, anxiety.

• Happiness is that feeling that comes over us when we know life is good and we can’t help but smile. It is when we can do what our heart wants to do and it is sometimes found in the small moments which leads to other memorable moments.

• Ignorance is having sight but no vision. If a blind man leads another blind man, both will fall into a ditch. It is a Lack of knowledge, information, understanding or awareness about life. It describes a person who deliberately ignores or disregard important information or facts in life.

Hard Drive.

• Buried in the cemetery of our mind are the treasures of untapped Ideas. There lies companies that never started, inventions that were never made, books that were never written, dance routines that were never created, and masterpieces that were never painted.

• The mind is the delivery room for the birth of new ideas and a place where history comes to life. It is a place where we can reflect on who we are? whom we want to be? what do we value? what do we desire? how much we know and how much more we need to learn.

• It’s our operating system that gathers, stores, and manages information using the processing resources of our hard drive. Our greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another. It is the way we think, reason, perceive, will, and feel. It is the software of my brain.

• It is the most fantastic library we could ever imagine. Its array of ideas with tunnels, bridges, and secret sections are hidden inside the deep corners of different boxes containing a collection of resources in a variety of formats.

• We cannot solve a problem with the same attitude that created it. To repent means we must change the way we have been conditioned to think and believe which is the only way we are going to see the impact of our concepts and ideas.

Reading.

• Reading is important because it develops ideas in our minds. Understanding the written word is one way our mind grows in its ability. Learning to read helps develop language skills. It also helps us to learn how to listen.

• We read until words become our friend and when we need to find an expression, it jumps into our mind waving its hand for us to pick. When we select our topic of conversation we become the director of our movie.

• Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body. Outside of a pet, a book is a man’s best friend. Children are made readers on the lap of their parents. A book is a gift we can open again and again.

• The purpose of reading is to connect the ideas on the page to what we already know. If we don’t know anything about a subject, then pouring words of text into our minds is like pouring water into a hand.

• Active reading is the process that enables lifelong ideas. Books enable us to have a glimpse into ideas on cultures, traditions, history, psychology and several other aspects of life. We get an amazing amount of ideas about life from reading.

A Calling.

• To discover and pursue one’s true and inherent passion, skill, or vocation. Callings draw us towards them. They start as a tiny nagging thought or feeling, then begin to consume our mind and drive our everyday life. 

• They can’t be ignored. We’ll feel a sense of urgency and a strong inclination to follow a calling. It is an inherent capacity to fulfil a function that meets a need in society. 

• The purpose of our life is to discover our unique calling. The work of our life is to develop and refine it, and the meaning of our life is to give it away in the service of others.

• A calling can never be learned, it can only be refined. It is the source of our value. If we never find it, we will never be valuable to society. Our skill is our obligation to the next generation. 

• Everyone has a unique calling. Something that is just undeniably “THEM” and is precisely useful to those around. It’s much more than a skill, it is an ingrained strength fuelled by our deepest passions, and nurtured by an unwavering sense of purpose. 

• Most people never find their calling due to self-doubt. Either because they don’t realise they have one, don’t believe they have one, haven’t attempted to find it, or don’t recognise it when it is staring them in the face.

• Sometimes people appear in our life unexpectedly like a gift from above. We didn’t even know we needed them, or that we had whispered silently for their guidance. They appear when we needed them most, to lift us, educate us, wake us up, or shine a light on our path. 

• Each day becomes more meaningful and our life is enhanced when our actions are guided by what inspires us. Sight is a function of the eyes, but vision is a function of the Heart. We must live the world a better place than we found it.

Spoken Word.

• Ideas are our natural means of expressing our thoughts and establishing an understanding with others. When we speak a few words, It takes our thoughts away from our mind and gives us a vehicle to transmit to others.

• Thoughts emerge from the nothingness of silence. Words come out of this void. Essence emerges from this emptiness and all our creativity requires a period of quiet time; from thoughts to words.

• When we speak, we give you a piece of our mind. Thoughts are invisible and they only become audible when spoken to others. They are containers of thoughts, hopes and fears.

• What we are today is an expression of our thoughts. We are what we think we are and we behave like what we think we are. We look like what we think we are. We speak like chameleons which reflect the colour of their environment. 

• The greatest pleasure in speaking is not the topic of conversation but the music our words create in other minds. Speech picks up flavour and odour like butter in a refrigerator.

• Ideas provide food for our minds and create light for our understanding and awareness. We speak to make words do the work of our paintings. 

Love and inspiration are great ideas that we can share with others and it’s free. It opens our life to many new possibilities. 

Our goal in life is not to die old, but to die empty and disappoint the graveyard. We must live life in such a way that when we are laid to rest, it will be a well-deserved rest from a life well-lived, opportunities well explored, a love well expressed, and the last drop of ink in our pen.