How does anyone think of ideas for anything? Well, it’s easy, they just start thinking - it’s almost impossible to STOP thinking. Your brain is always going. Perhaps you are waiting for the subway and the following is going through your mind;
“Gosh, I have been waiting for ages, I want this stupid thing to hurry up and - ooo, look at that hot guy over there! Straighten your back and appear to be impossibly cool and sexy, but without trying. Do that coy head toss, the one that Kristen does - thinking of which, she has not yet repaid me that twenty dollars I lent her at that all you can eat sushi place when her debit card got demagnetized. That sushi gave me food poisoning. I wonder if I should get mittens or gloves, my fingers are FREEZING! Oh, it’s hear, shove, push, panic, knock people over to sit next to cute guy - SUCCESS! Our children will be so cute.”
Or, maybe it isn’t going through your mind, but rather somebody elses. Who cares? It’s an example. Now, I am going to illustrate how your two minute thought process can be easily converted into many factoidz.
- How to be efficient in taking public transit.
- 5 ways to flirt using only body language
- How to politely ask a friend to repay an IOU
- How to avoid demagnetizing your cards
- How to find the best sushi places in your city
- The best ways to recover from food poisoning
- What to know when buying winter accessories
- How to move gracefully through crowded spaces
- The secret to approaching attractive strangers
That’s nine examples, that I just thought up on the spot from a random, (and completely fictional) freewrite that I just thought of.
Now, you could do one of two things on factoidz with these questions that popped randomly into your brain.
- Request a factoid. Ask the question! Let someone else do the dirty work, aka research and writing, then you profit from their hard work. There is no harm in being lazy. But I am a bigger fan of the second camp.
- Write the factoid yourself. You are a resourceful and clever individual! If you want to know something, you can put your mind and googling abilities to good use.
The key here is to tap into your thinking. Instead of letting thoughts pass through your mind unnoticed, and untapped, forgotten a few short seconds later, rendering them useless and turning you into a goldfish in a bowl, swimming in circles. Well, relax, it isn’t THAT bad. But it could be, if you continue on this senseless journey of not tapping into your big brain full of potential. When a thought passes through your mind notice it - expericence an “AHA!” moment. An AHA! moment is the lightbulb going off, the realisation that your thoughts are not random or unconsequential. Each thought is a gem, or fruit that can be harvested from the earth or tree that is your mind, your personality, your unique flow state. Write ideas down, and expand upon them later in a helpful, self-educating process that helps others as well.
