WEBVTT - Mediocre ideas can lead to good ones

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio.

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<v Speaker 2>Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

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<v Speaker 1>Today's tip is that mediocre ideas might lead to good ideas.

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<v Speaker 1>Don't edit yourself for dismiss ideas as bad too soon.

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<v Speaker 1>Let lots of ideas flow and then decide whether any

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<v Speaker 1>of the ideas are workable. Sometimes you may come up

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<v Speaker 1>with great ideas as you are looking at ones that

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<v Speaker 1>are anything. But I'm sure many people listening to this

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<v Speaker 1>podcast need to come up with ideas.

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<v Speaker 2>All the time. Perhaps you work in a creative field

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<v Speaker 2>and need to come up with content, or maybe you

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<v Speaker 2>are coming up with new product ideas or ways to

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<v Speaker 2>reach new clients or keep your employees engaged. Or you

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<v Speaker 2>just have various problems and logistics in your life that

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<v Speaker 2>you are constantly dealing with, or your friends and family

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<v Speaker 2>expect you to plan wonderful adventures for them. A great

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<v Speaker 2>idea seems obvious in retrospect, but breakthroughs tend not to

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<v Speaker 2>just appear like a shaft of light coming down from

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<v Speaker 2>the sky, weird as it may seem. Sometimes the best

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<v Speaker 2>way to come up with a great idea is to

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<v Speaker 2>generate lots of ridiculous ones. That is because the process

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<v Speaker 2>of generating the ridiculous ones has your brain turning, and

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<v Speaker 2>soon you start to make connections and come up with

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<v Speaker 2>other ideas. You never know where the initial thought will lead,

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<v Speaker 2>so rather than dismiss ideas out of hand, just get

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<v Speaker 2>them down with an open mind and see what they trigger.

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<v Speaker 2>For instance, maybe you and your college friends can't decide

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<v Speaker 2>where to go for a long weekend together. People suggest

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<v Speaker 2>ideas that others shoot down. You seem to be hitting

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<v Speaker 2>an impact, but then you just decide to see how

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<v Speaker 2>many possibilities you can come up with, even if they

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<v Speaker 2>are ridiculous. Just to be funny, you throw out thirty

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<v Speaker 2>six hours in Auckland. Someone mentions camping in the Everglades

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<v Speaker 2>in August, But after that someone mentions Lake Como, and

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<v Speaker 2>then you remember that you had a blast at a

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<v Speaker 2>cabin on much more accessible like George. Once you realize

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<v Speaker 2>that might actually work for a weekend together, bad ideas

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<v Speaker 2>lead to a good one. Or perhaps you need a

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<v Speaker 2>cat setter and your old one just moved away. Rather

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<v Speaker 2>than edit yourself, just list any mediocre possibility. The neighbor

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<v Speaker 2>who helps you out but is allergic to cats, your

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<v Speaker 2>friend's teen daughter who just got her license but lives

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<v Speaker 2>thirty minutes away. And then you remember that another friend's

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<v Speaker 2>niece moved to town and is job seeking and might

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<v Speaker 2>be excited to earn a little extra money while she's

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<v Speaker 2>got some oop in time. I know I've had this

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<v Speaker 2>experience with generating podcast ideas and book ideas. Book ideas

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<v Speaker 2>in particular are challenging because the idea needs to be

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<v Speaker 2>good enough to sustain seventy thousand words and my interest

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<v Speaker 2>for two years of my life. But rather than waiting

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<v Speaker 2>for the perfect idea, I come up with dozens of

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<v Speaker 2>mediocre ideas and write articles about them and write podcast

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<v Speaker 2>scripts about them and see what people say. If I

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<v Speaker 2>get a lot of feedback about one, that might mean

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<v Speaker 2>it's worth pursuing, or at least that a different angle

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<v Speaker 2>might ultimately be workable. So if you are stuck on

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<v Speaker 2>a difficult problem, generate as many possible solutions as you can.

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<v Speaker 2>Don't evaluate the solutions as you think of them. Instead,

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<v Speaker 2>just write them down, ones with potential, ones that would

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<v Speaker 2>probably not work, ones that are downright ridiculous, and keep

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<v Speaker 2>letting the possibilities flow. Often you will come up with

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<v Speaker 2>a better idea this way because you'll be more open

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<v Speaker 2>mind and creative about what could work instead of getting

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<v Speaker 2>stuck on why things wouldn't work. Mediocre ideas lead to

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<v Speaker 2>good ideas. It happens all the time. In the meantime.

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<v Speaker 2>This is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making

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<v Speaker 2>the most of our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast.

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<v Speaker 2>If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach

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<v Speaker 2>me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast

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<v Speaker 2>is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia,

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<v Speaker 2>please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you

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<v Speaker 2>listen to your favorite shows.