Last night I was sitting watching some mind numbing television and a commercial came on that really stuck in my head. It was a commercial for some inventors and said something like “100 years ago the patent attorney said.  Everything that can be invented has been already. Since then millions of new patents have been created.” Please forgive my recollection of the exact facts but the meaning is what stood out in my head.

Are there really no more original ideas? Do we just borrow bits and pieces of things to create new ones?

My answer would be, no and yes. I think that ideas are just a collaboration of thoughts that are taken apart and then creatively constructed back into something new. As designers we are constantly borrowing from others, from nature, pre-existing structures, emotions, colors, and on and on. However, I think there are always opportunities to create something new. Something that no one has done before. It just takes that little spark in the imagination and the wheel starts to move. As it begins to roll there is no stopping what can be created, especially when collaboration begins to take place.

When you are stuck on something or need a spark of inspiration to think of something new. Find someone who you can sit and bounce around your thoughts. You will be shocked at how a little brainstorming with someone, who knows much or nothing, can get you unstuck and cause the ideas to just flow. Ideas are what make life interesting. How boring would life be if we all just did the same thing and nothing new was created.

In an age when “original and unique” seem to be the buzz word of the day, creative ideas are the only thing that call you out from the masses. Good luck and keep always dreaming.

I’m constantly preaching that if you continue executing the same actions, you are most likely going to get the same results. In a recent blog posted by Greg Wilson, Inc. Magazine, “Secret 4. Try Something New!“, I think he basically says it all. Happy reading.

Have you ever just thrown your hands up in the air and said toooo much? Be it work, home life, leisure, these days there just never seems enough time to get it all done. One of the areas in balance I have been struggling most is  procrastination and I decided enough is enough. With that I procrastinated a bit more and went to the book store in search for the answer, and guess what, I think I found it. I just finished a spectacular book by Brian Tracy, “Eat that Frog!“.

This book is great for anyone who puts off that big scary task of the day till the end. If you wait until the last minute to do the really bad tasks, and you are like me,  you never seem to get that last big, most important task ever done.

The theory behind “Eat that Frog!” is do you worst more horrible, dreaded task first. In essence, eat the big ugly frog before you do anything else and then the little tiny frogs are not so hard to swallow as the day goes on. I have to admit, I’ve tried his theory and it actually works. If you get into work and just do the task that is the hardest, and often the most important to your success, you are most likely to have accomplished more than you would that day than you would have the entire week.

It is often that unsurmountable, painful, hard, difficult task that we save for last, if we just would take a bite, we would see it really is not that difficult, to just eat the frog. Even if you have to do it one bite at a time. Good luck and may you procrastinate no longer.