“14 Ways to get Breakthrough Ideas”

This is a link to Mitch Ditkoff's "14 Ways to get Breakthrough Ideas" http://changethis.com/.

The article begins with the author explaining what innovation is and the two schools of thought on the subject.  One has a strong bias towards thinking while the other towards feeling.  Ditkoff says that both are effective and are used by us at different times.  He then gives a list of fourteen ways to come up with ideas. They are:  follow your fascination, immerse, tolerate ambiguity, make new connections, fantasize, define the right challenge, listen to your subconscious, take a break,notice and challenge existing patterns and trends, hang out with diverse groups of people, brainstorm, look for happy accidents, use creative thinking techniques, and suspend logic.  Each technique is explained and he suggests ways to implement them into your creative process.

I feel that a lot of the techniques provided by Ditkoff in the article are valid and useful.  In fact, some of the examples given have happened to me.  The first suggestion that I find to be particularly useful is to Take a Break.  Many times I have been working on something and was unable to get past a certain point.  I became more and more frustrated until I eventually gave up and walked away.  I focused on something totally different and when I came back to it, everything seemed to flow out of me.  Taking a Break is extremely helpful when I am stumped.  From now on when I am struggling with something, I will not get frustrated and try to force myself to work; I will listen to Ditkoff and take a break.

The next suggestion that I feel will enhance my creative process is to Immerse.   Although I have yet to find something to completely immerse myself in, when I do, this is very good advice.  A lot of my time is spent in my room doing work, hanging out, and multitasking with many distractions surrounding me.  In that environment, it can be very difficult to focus all my energy on one specific thing and develop it.  To set a time apart in a place with no distractions and solely focus on an idea could jump start my creative process and allow me to progress with an idea much more efficiently.  Also, isolating time to immerse myself in an idea can alleviate stress and increase my chances of having a breakthrough development.

The third creative suggestion that I could incorporate into my creative process is to Hang Out with Diverse Groups of People.  There are billions of people in this world and each one is different from the other.  If you only socialize with one group of people, everything is basically familiar and your creativity can be hindered.  If you socialize with others that you do not usually socialize with, you can find new meanings, different view points, and different personalities which can challenge your beliefs and change the way you act and think.  Every person thinks in their own way and can potentially ignite an idea in another person's head.  With a broader base of people to socialize with, one can find ways to make connections between different cultures and lines of thought to create new ideas.  Hopefully I can use this technique not only to spark my creativity but also to meet new people and learn more about myself.

3. What new idea of yours is bubbling on the brink of breakthrough? In what ways can you stay with it, even if something in you is impatient for a breakthrough?


Recently, I was lying in bed trying to fall asleep and an idea for a new video game popped into my head.  I immediately took my phone and quickly outlined the idea.  When I woke up, I took another look at my idea and it found it to be pretty good.  I tried to come up with more but I wasn't able to develop anything that I liked.  Later that day when I was in my room another idea sprung into my brain and again I took out my phone and wrote it down.  For the past couple weeks, ideas for this video game have been popping into my head and I have been writing them down.  I have tried to sit down and come up with more but have only been able to find new ideas when I'm not expecting it.  If I continue to write down the ideas that pop into my head, I feel that eventually I will have enough to be able to create something that is well developed and structured.  I will stay with my idea by continually working on it in short increments and by combining the bits and pieces that I come up with in creative ways.  This idea is very important to me because I am a digital media major and hope to one day create video games like the one I am slowly beginning to create now.