Generate Brilliant Ideas

The mind of a child is full of weird ideas, but when adulthood comes, it sets up cognitive filters inside the mind to block out strange ideas, letting only the conventional ones pass through.

The brilliant ideas don’t cross the ‘toll gate’ established inside us, and we need to adopt strategies to relax our cognitive filters and let those ideas come through.

Theoretical physicist Leonard Mlodinow offers three strategies for relaxing your cognitive filters to give your brilliant ideas time to shine in the spotlight of the conscious mind.

Eliminate Distractions

New ideas come to the surface level when we are calm and have an open mind. Multitasking often fails because the mind cannot take more than one task at a time and resorts to task switching, juggling our cognitive abilities. Turn off your phone or remove it from the room. Don’t multitask. Do one thing at a time.

Give Yourself Time

A tight schedule never produces brilliant ideas, but ends up poisoning free-hand thinking. Set aside full days or weekends to do absolutely nothing, just keeping everything open-ended. The stressors are then removed and the mind is uncramped, ready to bend and stretch to make new connections and associations.

Move Past Your Fear of Failure

Get used to failing. Get used to being wrong. Worrying about looking stupid inhibits your thinking. It can kill unusual ideas—many of which will be bad, some of which might be great. Being wrong actually makes you look smart and self-assured. Laugh off failure and admit your mistakes to get past the stigma.