The Ideas That Come After The Idea

There can be a lot of pressure to come up with an idea.

The problem is weighing on you or your client, there is a priority on solving it, and you begin wracking your brain to force it to spit out a brilliant idea (and that creative technique always works SO well, right??)

The idea gods are with you and you manage to wring out a halfway passable idea that your client can begin evaluating and planning for implementation.

WHEW!

You get to unclench your entire body now, and as your mind is finally released from the urgency mode of trying to solve that tough problem — a new idea for a solution unexpectedly pops into your head.

You’re a little surprised. You weren’t ready for a second idea because it was so difficult to come up with that first one, so you begin scrambling for a piece of paper and a pen to scribble it down… but then another concept comes to mind and your eyes widen as you realize it’s way better than the first two ideas you came up with.

You’re still writing down idea number three when two more ideas blink into your brain so you write those down as fast as you can. Before you know it, you’ve got a dozen ideas or more that you can build on, expand, and test out as possible solutions to that big problem that had you stumped mere minutes ago.

This phenomena of coming up with more ideas after you already came up with a solution is more common that you think.

Stress and anxiety make your creativity dry up like a river during a drought, but once you can let yourself relax (because you came up with that first idea), the pressure is off, the drought is over, and you can generate ideas in a brainstorm like water drops falling in a rainstorm.

So the next time you’re stuck for an idea — come up with anything. 
You just need to come up with that one first idea so you can feel the mental pressure release, and allow all the ideas that come after the idea to pour out of you.