How to Generate Your Best Ideas

Scenario: "Dude, we gotta think. When we think, we win with great ideas. Yay!" Sure, it seems that way. "We're at our best when we're conscious," common wisdom tells ya. "When we sleep, our brains rest. It's essentially 'dead' until we wake up," the thinking goes. Yet, if you were to compare the processing powers of your conscious mind against your subconscious, what do you get?

1. The subconscious: Brazilian soccer player.
2. The conscious: American soccer player.

(Zing!) Your unconscious mind generates bucket-loads of great ideas. Meanwhile, your conscious mind waits in the wings thinking it's hot stuff -- but it's really not. (It's like an aspiring American Idol contestant.)

The Magic of Your Subconscious

Do this: Tell somebody to throw their patented hay-makers at you. What happens? You instantly get into survival mode: you block, kick, then run -- instantly, without thinking about it. That's your subconscious mind working its magic. Its processing power -- in a millisecond:

1. reacted to the attack
2. mobilized your body into defensive mode
3. planned a counter
4. looked for the most efficient exit door

Your subconscious quickly loaded bulks of learned information from your past experiences -- then responded to the sudden attack, accordingly. (Imagine if you had to "think about it" first, before deciding what to do next. You = hospital.) Your subconscious found the greatest, most ridiculously awesome solution when you needed it. That saved you from being hay-maker'd.

How to Generate Sexy Business Ideas

To optimize your subconscious to form those sexy business ideas, use the pump-then-cruise method. That is, pump up as much information into your fabulous brain as you possibly can, then sit back -- and see your unconscious generating those super-fantastic ideas. Netherlands Professor of Psychology Ap Dijksterhuis recommends it:

Use your conscious mind to acquire all the information you need for making a decision -- but don't try to analyze the information. Instead, go on holiday while your unconscious mind digests it for a day or two. Whatever your intuition then tells you is almost certainly going to be the best choice.

The sucka's akin to pumping a basketball. You can only pump the ball so much -- then you have to let the ball do its own thing to become a great; for instance:

1. conforming to the shape of the court
2. molding itself to the players' hands
3. fitting itself for the particular environment

To get those fabulous ideas, stop thinking.

Pump brain. Put on cruise-control. See sexy magic.

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