This article can be found at http://changethis.com/
Mitch Ditkoff’s “14 Ways to get Breakthrough Ideas”, is basically a 14 step plan to help ones mind attempt to make the concept of coming up with a great a idea less intimidating. While reading this I took special liking to three of Ditkoff’s suggestions.
His eighth suggestion is to take a break from the stress of and frustration of trying to come up with something big. He writes, “from years of experience…more is often less”. Sitting at a desk for hours, only thinking of how to solve a problem that has come up in a project, will usually lead to nothing but increased stress and probably a headache. Ditkoff instead suggests that we take breaks from our problems and do something entirely different. With this strategy we may subconsciously come up with a solution to the problem. I think this suggestion is something that people overlook all to commonly. I have found that if I take short breaks in between working, I am far more productive than when I just working straight through every problem. While I might not be solving world problems during these breaks, I think the concepts are the same.
For Ditkoff’s 10th suggestion, he says that we should try to hang out with diverse groups of people. If we constantly hang out with like-minded people, the odds of coming up with a breakthrough idea are much smaller. This is because if we are always in the same group, we always get the same perspective for every situation. I guarantee someone from NYC will have a totally different ideas and solutions to problems than someone from a farm town in Italy. While this may be a drastic difference between people, it illustrates the point that we need to constantly be diversifying our point of view in order to make a useful breakthrough.
Finally, in his first suggestion Ditkoff tells us to follow our fascinations. I think that too many people choose career paths involving straight number crunching, or sitting at a desk all day because it makes the most sense for the finance future. And while these are great career choices, think if everybody pursued their childhood passions and fascinations. These fascinations might seem useless, trivial, or even impossible at the beginning, but could have the possibility of turning in to something great. The Wright brothers were two crazy bike mechanics from Ohio, with the insane fascination of taking to the skies like a bird. Think if they had not followed that passion for wanting to discover something new and revolutionary. Why not take hold of that small fire inside and see where it takes you? As Ditkoff writes, “what enchants us and delights us is sacred –or could be sacred- a clue that something significant is knocking on our door”.
At the end of his ninth suggestion, Ditkoff asks us to notice trends in the market place that are most intriguing to us. I am very interested in the world of electronic music, and therefore, stay up to date on what is going on in the industry. And for someone who is looking to add creatively to this industry it is a very exciting time. Over the last couple years I have seen music that is traditionally more popular on the other side of the ocean begin to fill iPods closer to home. For example, artist like Tiesto, Deadmau5, and others have started to become massively popular in our part of the world. Tiesto now has a residence in the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas has collaborated with international Hip-Hop stars such as Three six Mafia and Busta Rhymes, and both have gone on massively successful tours in both America and around the World. In addition to this DJs at nightclubs have started to spin electronic music into their sets rather than traditional Hip-Hop and top 40 music. One doesn’t even need to look outside the Athens city limits to see this trend. For the first time ever a DJ headlined the main stage at Athens’ Halloween block party, spinning Trance, House, and Progressive music. This trend syncs right along with many of the ideas I have. Making a living in the music industry is tough and sometimes impossible task, however this trend shows that there is a growing interest for the style of music I create. While this might be only a small consolation, it gives me some confidence to know that there is a body of people out there that actually cares, and that that body of people is continuing to grow.
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