Belief in the “Magic” of creation is one of the only beliefs that can lift a business-man from his papers and a writer from her pen. But the truth is that this belief just as much distract and sabotage our greater purpose as contribute! I’m not being miserable when I say great ideas aren’t a product of some spontaneous explosion. I’m being optimistic.

Because anyone who believes that great ideas are magic will also believe that great ideas are just for the lucky, the talented, the rich. And people who believe that great ideas are a product of luck usually believe that great ideas are not for them. Or even worse; something to wait around, sulking in the shadows for. What I’m writing to you today for is to not to make this mistake. If you’re sat behind a blank screen, there’s a problem.

So in this post I’ll be discussing ways that you can encourage inspiration to strike, not wait for it to drop out of the sky. You may not believe me, but you have as much potential to think a great thought, as Albert Einstein. Just as I have as much potential to think of a story line as great as J.K Rowling’s.

The only difference between the people who get these great thoughts, and the people that don’t, is simple. The great thinkers are always thinking, always looking, always creating the right situations for inspiration to strike.

What is a Eureka Moment?

A Eureka moment, by dictionary definition is a ‘sudden understanding of a previously incomprehensible problem or concept’.

By my definition it’s the creative person’s gold dust. Because if you’ve got the right skills (which you must have if you found Eureka in the first place) and work ethic, you can shape the world in any way you want. The initial idea of Eureka can be pinpointed to Greek Mythology. It’s said that the Archimedes had been asked to find out if the King’s crown was made of pure gold. Without getting all “scientist” on you, the lucky Archimedes discovered ‘density’.

But they discovered this, legend says, not through scientific research… not sat at a desk behind a pile of papers… but in the bath. Thus proving that the mind knew all along, it just needed the right stimuli to connect the dots. How did he react? He leaped out the bath and ran home naked, yelling – you guessed it – Eureka, all the way home. Further Reading: Top 5 Eureka Moments

A Question of Eureka: Is she real?

Eureka, in rough English translation, means ‘I found it’. In Steven King’s autobiography ‘On Writing’ he also suggests that ideas are something to discover by describing them as fossils; ‘part of an undiscovered pre-existing world’.

I really like this metaphor because it suggested that although it’s a creator’s job to get each their ideas out of the ground and into the world – safely with what tools they’ve gathered and sharpened over the years – that there is still a bigger mystery surrounding Creation. Who put the fossils there in the first place? “Sometimes it’s enormous,” he wrote, “A Tyrannosaurus Rex” but the key here is the word is sometimes.

The truth is we’ve all had a Eureka moment. We’ve all clicked our fingers, had a light bulb switch on. And thanked the heavens. But these ideas never truly appear as if by magic. They were in our heads all along, maybe even part of another idea that was in our head. So I think the real question here is not about the existence of Eureka but how we can provoke her. Because we can’t rush the process of digging up the ideas, but we can encourage it by digging in the first place. Here are my top five tips for inviting Eureka moments into your creative life:

1) Write Everything Down

Any idea is worth writing about. To use the fossil example again, an idea may seem small or insignificant now, but if you look a little deeper and broaden your perspective you could potentially be looking at the structure of something much larger. This could range from a character (a hobbit?) to the name of a website. So treat yourself to a notebook and get thinking.

2) Slow Down…

Getting away from the daily grind will give your mind the freedom it needs to come to the conclusions you desire. So take a walk, take a break. If this involves stopping work for a little while, then so be it. Just ensure your always surrounding yourself with the stimuli needed to trigger your big break.

3) Think Outside the Box…

If we look at the same perspectives, day in and out, we’ll discover the same ideas day in day out. Life experience is one of the most important features of finding your Eureka. If Albert hadn’t seen the clock tower on his ride home, would he have found relativity? Perhaps not. We’ll never know. But what we do know is that a shake up in routine can often provide the greatest circumstance for inspiration.

So consider the small and the large ways that you can change your lifestyle for the better in 2014. This could include saving for a trip somewhere, walking a new way to work or even just starting a project you left on the back burner.

4) Create the Right Circumstances…

For the dots to you have to have a vision. And to have a vision you have to be inspired. So why not work backwards? If a good product is something that fulfils and reflects your deepest values, then why not try thinking about what you want to provide for the world first. After doing this, try and surround you with opportunities and stimuli that could potentially meet this.

It helps to be looking in the right places for inspiration. But don’t be too specific. J.K Rowling scrawled the idea for Harry Potter on a napkin, on her train ride home. The idea came to her spontaneously, but it’s important to note that Harry Potter featured in her day to day life, the people she met, the places she saw, the things she read, every day. The biggest lesson to learn for the creator is the importance of observing as much of the world around us as we possibly can and allowing ourselves the time to lift out those fossils in full and with the greatest care.

5) Keep a Dream Journal…

It’s believed that our dreams are the brains way of solving internal issues and raising sub-conscious ideas. Therefore it’s not surprising that some of the best ideas come as a result of dreams because they are resolving this ‘incomprehensible problem’. By listening to the thoughts and feelings we’ve never had the courage to explore before, we can learn a lot about ourselves.

Digging up can sometimes be as effective as digging down in this way, so keep a post-it note beside your bed. Remember, you don’t have to be Einstein to be inspired. Anyone with a purpose and a pen has the potential to change the world. But Eureka is a selfish character. She’ll only give you what you’re looking for if you find her first. Part of your role as a potential world changer; to be forever looking for ways that you can change the world.

Further Reading

Top 5 Eureka Moments: If life gives you chocolate, make a microwave…

Wrote by Aimee Hall