When Michael Jordan, arguably the greatest basketball player of all time, briefly retired from the Chicago Bulls between October 1993 and March 1995, other players had the opportunity to shine brightly.

One of such players was Hakeem Olajuwon, also known as ‘The Dream’ who led his team, the Houston Rockets, to back-to-back NBA championships in 1994 and 1995.

In addition to the fact that Hakeem Olajuwon was a physical, athletic specimen (he was 7 feet tall!), he moved with such grace and speed on the court that was not common for men of his height.

As a result of the unique combination of agility, style and size, Hakeem Olajuwon was able to dominate the NBA with a particular skill which he referred to as ‘The Dream Shake’

So, how was Hakeem Olajuwon able to come up with such a devastating move that embarrassed opponents game after game? And even more, how can you use the same strategy to come up with good ideas?

The Olajuwon Dream Shake Came From Seeing Everything Connected

As I said in this post, we humans have a tendency to compartmentalize our lives. This tendency is one of the main reasons we find it difficult to come up with good ideas. Since we compartmentalize our lives, we are blind to the inevitable overlaps that invariably appear between different bodies of experience and knowledge.

Hakeem Olajuwon grew up in Lagos, Nigeria, where the predominant game was football (soccer, for my US readers). As a youngster, Olajuwon played as a goalkeeper and consequently developed the footwork and agility that made the Dream Shake easier for him to develop later as a professional basketball athlete.

Hear him explain in his own words:

“The Dream Shake was actually one of my soccer moves which I translated to basketball. It would accomplish one of three things: one, to misdirect the opponent and make him go the opposite way; two, to freeze the opponent and leave him devastated in his tracks; three, to shake off the opponent and giving him no chance to contest the shot.”

Note that at the point when Hakeem Olajuwon popularized the move, he had been professionally playing basketball for nearly 8 years. Basketball was the sport that paid his bills and made him a celebrity figure. In contrast, all the time he was playing football, he did not earn a single cent from his efforts. Yet, because Hakeem Olajuwon saw every experience in his life as connected, he was able to find associations from seemingly different sports. The Dream Shake was born and Olajuwon’s place was cemented in the annals of history.

The Olajuwon Dream Shake Came to the Expectant Mind

After harnessing his ability to see everything connected, the next thing that Olajuwon subconsciously did was to direct his expectations in the desired direction.

This is why I said in this post, your expectations determine your experiences and your reality.

Olajuwon knew he had a good idea from football that he could incorporate into basketball. And after spending time perfecting the Dream Shake, his expectations attracted the desired result.

Below is an excerpt from an interview where Hakeem Olajuwon described The Dream Shake in vivid detail. Also note his choice of words when detailing how he expects his opponents to react to his moves.

“When the point guard throws me the ball, I jump to get the ball. But this jump is the set-up for the second move, the baseline move. I call it the ‘touch landing.’ The defender is waiting for me to come down because I jumped but I’m gone before I land. Defenders say ‘Wow, he’s quick,’ but they don’t know that where I’m going is predetermined. He’s basing it on quickness, but the jump is to set him up. Before I come down, I make my move. When you jump, you turn as you land. Boom! The defender can’t react because he’s waiting for you to come down to defend you. Now, the first time when you showed that quickness, he has to react to that quickness, so you can fake baseline and go the other way with your jump hook. All this is part of the Dream Shake. The Dream Shake is you dribble and then you jump; now you don’t have a pivot foot. When I dribble I move it so when I come here, I jump. By jumping, I don’t have a pivot foot now. I dribble so now I can use either foot. I can go this way or this way. So he’s frozen, he doesn’t know which way I’m going to go. That is the shake. You put him in the mix and you jump stop and now you have choice of pivot foot. He doesn’t know where you’re gonna turn and when.”

Hakeem Olajuwon had a mental map of how he expected the move to work and yes, it worked wonders every time he implemented it. In fact, Hakeem Olajuwon’s expectation was so good that many of the high-quality opponents that had the misfortune of being on the receiving end of The Dream Shake started expecting it too.

Consider Shaquille O’Neal’s musings after being on the receiving end of The Dream Shake: “Hakeem has five moves, then four countermoves – that gives him 20 moves.“

Olajuwon’s markers shared his expectation. They knew what was coming, however, there was nothing they could do against it!

The Olajuwon Dream Shake Came From Celebrating the Mundane

Ask anybody who follows football (soccer) and you’d find out that the goalkeeper has the most boring job on his team.

For large periods of the game, the goalie is not in possession of the ball. In fact, when people are just having a kickabout for fun, it’s usually the least skillful person that ends up tending the goalposts. Either that or the fat kid!

In any case, as a goalkeeper, it is very easy to tune out of the game and lose concentration because of boredom or resentment.

Yet, for Hakeem Olajuwon, it obviously wasn’t the case. One way or the other, he found a way to enjoy the most boring part of football. He did not despise his role as the goalkeeper in his team. Rather, he focused on becoming good at the position and eventually, when the time arrived for him to develop his signature move, the hours spent in his youth honing his goalkeeping skills counted for something.

In Conclusion…

Hakeem Olajuwon was able to create a practically undefendable offensive move in basketball that is still being used till this day. He was able to achieve it by mastering three principles of creating good ideas. First, he saw all the experiences in his life as connected. Second, he had a vivid expectation of how the good idea was going to work. Finally, he found a way to thrive in mundane events.

Can you get the same results in your life too?

Yes, you too can come up with good ideas with remarkable predictability when you follow the three aforementioned principles.

Take a moment, move away from the current politically motivated conversations about walls, arm yourself with childlike curiosity and just look around you.

If you look hard enough, here’s what you will be aware of: You’d realize how the sheer quantity and qualities of physical walls around us are a testament to how far we have come as humans. Name it. Churches, homes, supermarkets, schools, any kind of building – they are all identifiable by walls. Yet, in spite of how much our building styles have evolved over time, walls are not even half as strategically important as they were thousands of years ago!

Ages ago, the strength of a kingdom was largely dependent on the height, strength, and thickness of the walls that encompassed it. Walls were not handled with a laissez-faire attitude and vast amounts of effort and resources were expended in building them. This understanding was what stood out to a philosopher king’s inspired mind when he said the following golden words: Whoever has no rule over his own spirit is like a city broken down, without walls.

Profound words!

Nowadays, walls are no longer built around kingdoms. But that does not stop them from still being a crucial aspect of the kind of buildings we erect today. And what’s more? Every single day, walls are capable of screaming wisdom at us because they are pretty much everywhere. Below are 5 lessons that walls can teach you about self-control.

1. Walls Provide Clear Boundaries

Before a wall is built, either to separate rooms…or countries, efforts are made to know the exact point where the wall would be erected. All the calculations are done way before the first brick is laid. This is necessary because walls cannot be moved around like chess pieces on the board. If you get it wrong the first time, you would have to destroy the original wall and erect another one.

How does this apply to self-control?

Economics researchers Xavier Gine, Dean Karlan, and Jonathan Zinman conducted a study to see how they could get over 2000 Philippine smokers to quit smoking. The researchers divided the smokers into two groups. Members of the first group were asked to try to quit smoking in 6 months, after which their urine would be tested for nicotine. On the other hand, members of the second group were offered commitment contracts with a bank such that they could make weekly deposits for a period of 6 months. Like the first group, after 6 months, the members of this group had to go for a urine test to check their nicotine levels. If no nicotine was found in their bodies, they got their money back and vice versa. At the end of the study, it was revealed that the smokers offered a commitment contract were nearly 40% more likely to be nicotine-free after 1 year!!!

Just as the location and dimensions of walls are chosen well in advance before a single brick is laid, the battle of self-control is never won in the heat of the temptation. Rather, victory is secured way before the ‘temperature’ starts rising. If you want to survive the onslaught of temptations, your non-negotiables must be chosen ahead of time. If you are battling with lust, set clear boundaries ahead of time on the kind of movies you would not permit yourself to see for any reason. If you have tendencies for gluttony, make a precommitment to eat only one small plate of food and then drink plenty of water afterward. A seasoned politician took a similar approach which you can read about here

2. Walls Provide Strong Defenses

In the days of old, kingdoms made use of walls as a form of defense against the attacks from enemy kingdoms, wild animals and other threats to their safety. Interestingly, walls today have similar functionalities. For instance, there are firewalls that protect the rapid spread of fires in the case of a fire emergency, consequently providing people with a little extra time to escape with their lives. Similarly, there are certain kinds of walls called shear walls that are capable of withstanding the shocks generated by earthquakes and high-speed winds. Ultimately, the point is that walls are a formidable defense against hazards.

How does this apply to self-control?

In the same way that walls provide a defense, self-control can be used to defend against stress and other factors that make one easy prey for temptations. However, the way this is done is not by consistently resisting tempting desires or by rescuing oneself from emergencies and the jaws of temptations. Researchers who have dedicated their careers to understanding self-control observed a better way. They discovered that people who have high levels of self-control devote their energies towards avoiding crises. They set-up their lives in such a way that they are able to avoid problem situations. For instance, they give themselves enough time to finish a project, that way they do not need to force themselves to stay awake all night to beat the deadline. They wake up earlier in the day, so they are able to get things done before other people start making demands on their time. Instead of using their self-control to quench fires and temptations, this group of people spend their energies on developing good habits that would eventually become walls protecting them from the emergencies of this life.

3. Walls Provide Dependable Insulation

In houses, walls are very important for temperature regulation. When the temperature outside the building is too hot, the temperature within the building is relatively cooler. Conversely too, when the temperature outside the building is cold, the temperature within the building is warmer compared to the temperature outside. Both ways, either cool or hot, walls in the house play a role in ensuring that the temperature within the building is bearable for its inhabitants.

How does this apply to self-control?

In his bestselling book, Man’s Search For Meaning, Austrian psychiatrist Viktor Frankl described many of the unspeakable human right violations that he faced in a Nazi concentration camp. While reflecting on the reason for his survival, Frankl penned the following: “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances.” This ability to choose your response is what I like to describe as equanimity. According to Wikipedia, equanimity is a state of psychological stability and composure which is undisturbed by an experience of or exposure to emotions, pain, or other phenomena that may cause others to lose the balance of their mind. Just like the walls of a building keep the temperature within the building relatively constant, self-control enables you to keep your emotions stable regardless of what is going on around you.

4. Walls Provide Beauty Through Finishes

90% of the things that make a building more attractive is placed on the wall. Walls are plastered. Walls are painted. Walls are decorated. People do not hang clocks from the roofs of buildings. Neither do they hang pictures on the foundations of a house. Everything that makes the building more beautiful is showcased on the wall of the house.

How does this apply to self-control?

Every year, millions of people purchase tickets to either watch a football game or to attend a music concert. This happens because humans generally admire individuals who have consistently used self-control and discipline to attain mastery in their crafts. As I mentioned in a previous post (“The Matthew Principle and Why The Rich Keep Getting Richer”), success always compounds upon itself, and failure compounds on itself too. That’s why artists and athletes will keep on amassing wealth and fame as long as they stick to the self-control and discipline that brought them to the limelight in the first place. Just as walls are the carriers of the aesthetics of a building, your consistent devotion to a life of self-control and discipline will make people see the beautiful value in you. As a result, you’d start to attract people of wealth and worth who would celebrate you in the long run!

5. Walls Transmit the Weight of the House to the Foundation

In buildings, particularly in North America and Australia, walls are constructed so that they are able to transfer the weight of the building to the foundation. This is done through posts, columns, and studs.

How does this apply to self-control?

Consider Alcoholic Anonymous (AA), an international organization that has been helping alcoholics stay sober since 1935. To help alcoholics attain sobriety, the organization has a 12-step program that involves members seeking guidance and strength through prayer and meditation from God. When Stanford researchers John McKellar, Eric Stewart, and Keith Humphreys tracked more than 2000 men who attended AA meetings, they discovered that there was indeed a decrease in alcoholism strongly associated with a regular attendance of AA meetings! If you can handle it, here it is: Even though we live in a highly secularized society, the role that God plays in our lives cannot be overemphasized. Without God at the foundation of our lives, every other thing would fall apart in seconds. Little wonder Paul of Tarsus says, ‘For in him [God] we live, and move, and have our being…’ In the same way the walls transmit the weight of the building to the foundation, it takes self-control to acknowledge the fact that you are limited as a human and there is a Higher Power constantly operating behind the scenes.

In Conclusion…

Remember, Wisdom calls aloud in the street. Again she raises her voice in the open squares. This time she’s calling your attention to how walls can teach you self-control. If you stay sensitive and incline your ears, you’d have an unfair advantage in this race called life!

On May 17, 2006, FC Barcelona won the UEFA Champions League trophy after defeating Arsenal 2-1 in the final game of the competition. Big things were expected from this crop of Barcelona players and their system of football. Sadly, that never materialized. After two years without any major trophies, in 2008 it was crystal clear to everyone that there was a need for a system overhaul.

That system overhaul came in the form of Pep Guardiola. With a focus on aggressively retaining possession of the ball, as well as diligently applying relentless pressure on opponents in the few times they had a sniff of ball possession, Guardiola and his team went on to win 14 out of 18 major trophies over the course of four seasons. That is a whooping 77.8% success rate!!!

Yet, when Guardiola took over the reins as Barcelona’s head coach, his goal was not to win all the trophies that were available. In his book Pep Guardiola: Another Way of Winning, Guillem Balague shares what Guardiola said in his first meeting with the Barcelona squad in 2008:

“Gentlemen, good morning. You can imagine what a huge motivation it is for me to be here, to coach this team. It is the ultimate honor. Above all, I love the club. I would never make a decision that would harm or go against the club. Everything I am going to do is based on my love for FC Barcelona. We need and want order and discipline…I only ask this of you. I won’t tell you off if you misplace a pass, or miss a header that costs us a goal, as long as I know you are giving 100 percent. I could forgive you any mistake, but I won’t forgive you if you don’t give your heart and soul to Barcelona. I’m not asking results of you, just performance. I won’t accept people speculating about performance if it’s half-hearted or people aren’t giving their all. This is Barça, gentlemen, this is what is asked of us and this is what I will ask of you. You have to give your all…When we have the ball, we can’t lose it. When that happens, run and get it back. That is it, basically.“

Note how Guardiola did not mention anything about winning trophies, or even winning games. Yet, by the time he was done with his managerial career at Barcelona, he had managed to achieve phenomenal success with his team.

So, how did Guardiola attain idol status during his time at Barcelona? He simply focused on systems at the expense of goals.

The System on the Backend

Motivational speakers typically mislead thousands by urging them to follow their passions and do what they love. In addition, motivational speakers are also guilty of hammering on the need to chase goals. This is why people keep on setting new year resolutions and failing them within days. While smart goals are desirable for providing clarity and direction, depending solely on them for change is like resting your entire weight on a dry and brittle twig – not only would you fall down, you’d also get your hand pierced!

One thing that Guardiola understood was that systems were more powerful in bringing about the attainment of goals. He was not obsessed with winning trophies. Rather, he was engrossed with the kind of players that were recruited into the team, as well as the system of precise triangular single-touch passes that his players used in walking the ball into the opposition’s net. Because of the system of play he instilled into his players’ subconscious minds, FC Barcelona literally won every single trophy that was up for grabs.

Here’s is an interesting angle to consider: If, after you had developed a clear goal, you went ahead to ignore it, totally focusing your energies on building and perfecting your system, would you still attain your goals?

The answer is a resounding yes!!!

Here’s what James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, had to say in this matter:

“The goal in any sport is to finish with the best score, but it would be ridiculous to spend the whole game staring at the scoreboard. The only way to actually win is to get better each day. In the words of three-time Super Bowl winner Bill Walsh, “The score takes care of itself.” The same is true for other areas of life. If you want better results, then forget about setting goals. Focus on your system instead.”

Ironically, peddlers of false advice are often righteous practitioners of sound principles on the backend. For many motivational speakers and gurus, their goal is to become the best in their niches. However, unlike their ignorant audiences, these speakers know that merely setting goals would not bring them closer to their attainments. As a result, they devote themselves to perfecting their systems of stage mastery, oration and, persuasion. Naturally, they get the results – which sadly also leads to the dissemination of poisonous information.

The Primordial System of the Father

The Creation Story as recorded in Genesis 1 is a microcosm of everything that makes the seen world tick. When we take a closer examination, what we simply find is a story of God establishing systems that will continue to run till the end of time. Indeed, as it was revealed to William of Occam (circa 1287–1347), “It is vain to do with more what can be done with less” Everything that God did in those six days of creation was deliberate and it counted towards a specific purpose. God expended effort in establishing an efficient system that was capable of self-propagating indefinitely. No creative word was wasted.

Consider the creative system that God established to ensure the continuation of plant life on earth:

Genesis 1:11-12 says, ‘And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.’

Note how God embedded the capacity for plants to procreate indefinitely. He created plants with the ability to produce seeds, while also creating seeds the ability to produce plants. We all acknowledge that God is the Almighty, All-Powerful Creator, and there is nothing stopping Him from applying creative effort every instance that there was a need for a new plant or herb in the field. Expending creative energies to continually create plants would have been cool to see. However, it would not have been efficient. Hence, after God had clarified His goal of creating a physical world for His glory and pleasure (Colossians 1:16; Revelation 4:11), He set up a system to ensure that goal was consistently attained.

The same thing repeats itself in Genesis 1:28 after God had created mankind.

“And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.”

God did not create another Adam and Eve one million times. Rather, He created a system that enabled Adam and Eve to reproduce offsprings in their own likeness. God created the system of sexual reproduction as an ironclad guarantee that there would always be life on the planet.

God loves order and process, and He is very systematic. This is why Genesis 2:2 could happen. “And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.”

God did not rest because He was exhausted from the efforts that went into creating the heavens and earth. It wasn’t as if God was going to pass out if He had created one more thing. Rather, God rested because of the systems He had already established. There was literary nothing that God needed to create that wasn’t already created. It’s the same thing that happens when an artist has finished a great masterpiece that he had been working on. When the artist is done with the painting, there is no more work left to be done on it. So he rests from that painting job. That’s exactly the same thing that God did with His Creation process.

Leverage Systems to Rest

Man was made in God’s image and likeness. This means that we have a portion of the very essence of God’s Nature embedded in humanity. This implies that there are certain manifestations of God’s character in our persons and behaviors. We have the ability to appreciate goals because God appreciates goals. Furthermore, if God had the ability to set up systems to efficiently and effectively attain His creation goals, we also have the ability to do so.

That is why I think that the author of Hebrews writes a stern warning in Hebrews 4:1:

“Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.”

The ultimate goal is to enter into a state of rest, where you cease from your works. However, God has established fail-proof systems for every aspect of your existence on both sides of eternity. There is a system for salvation. There are also godly systems for attaining prosperity, healing and peace like clockwork. Yet, because many people are oblivious to the working of systems, they miss out on the state of rest that God has established for them.

The writer of Hebrews continues in verse 3 of the same chapter:

“For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.”

When you believe in God’s methods and systems, your learning curve becomes shortened and you enter into His “Genesis 2:2” kind of rest quickly. There is no need to expend time and effort in reinventing the wheel. God has already established systems from the foundation of the earth and you can find His unmistakable signature in Nature – only if you are able to observe and see them.

The culmination of this idea can be found in Hebrews 4:11:

“Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.”

After everything is said and done, there is only one kind of labor you should expend all your efforts in doing. That work is one done in establishing systems for yourself. And when you walk in total faith in God and key yourself in the methods and systems that He has already set up, your life becomes like a six-course meal prepared specifically for you.

Ultimately, as James Clear has quipped time and time again, “You don’t rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems.” Today, start praying, thinking of, searching for and implementing tested systems that would dramatically improve the quality of your life.

Have you ever wondered how public speakers regularly come up with good ideas that are so deep, profound and thought-provoking?

Growing up, I remember coming across good ideas encapsulated in sayings such as:

“Your attitude determines your altitude.” , 

“If you do not know where you are going, people will lead you to where they are going”, and,

“Your location determines your allocation.”

While many of these thoughts forced me into reflection, they also created a desire to know how to come up with good and shareable ideas of my own.

Then one day, I received light in one of my blindspots concerning the origin of good ideas.

Someone had shared the story of how God spoke to the heart of a pastor stuck in traffic in one of Nigeria’s busier cities. Traffic lights were non-functional, and there were no traffic police around. As a result, chaos broke out. Horns blared and drivers hurled obscenities at each other. On that road, survival was the name of the game and only the toughest drivers escaped unscathed. Ultimately, in a manner of minutes, there was a total standstill as there were bottlenecks everywhere – caused by impatient drivers driven by selfishness and disregard for anyone but themselves. It was within this chaos that this pastor found the clarity in his heart to hear the following words:

Where there is no order, stagnation is bound to be the order of the day!

If you consider that statement, you’d realize that so much truth and practical value were packed into those few words. For instance, if you fail to put your finances in order – clearly separating out your income, expenses, liabilities and assets – it would only be a matter of time before you find yourself in a state of financial stagnation.

There is no doubt that God planted the seeds of this wonderful idea into this pastor’s heart. However, the same way seeds do not grow in the absence of other factors such as good soil, nutrients and water, good ideas would not thrive in the wrong environment. There were certain things that worked in the pastor’s favor, such that he was able to pick out the good idea in the midst of the stress and chaos that reigned supreme around him. While there are so many ways to skin a cat, I would be sharing three practical tips that you can use to consistently source good ideas.

Good Ideas Come From Seeing Everything Connected

If someone gave you a gift of $100 and somewhere along the line you lost it, research has shown that you would not feel as hurt as you would if you lost $100 from your hard-earned money. In spite of the fact that we mentally acknowledge that a $100 bill has the same value, regardless of if it was given to us as a gift or as a part of our salary, we subconsciously appropriate different values to the different $100 bills depending on the circumstances that surround how we got the money in the first place. The process of compartmentalizing money into different categories based on how we feel about the money is referred to as mental accounting.

Unfortunately, our tendency to compartmentalize is not limited to money. We do the same thing in our relationship with God. We create “God time” in the morning and evenings where we pray and read the Bible in 30 minutes, while we live the remaining 23 hours and 30 minutes on our own terms without giving so much as a thought about God. We compartmentalize our lives and it is no surprise that we lead spiritually empty lives because we have learned to live so long away from the influence of the Source.

Interestingly, our tendency to compartmentalize is also one of the reasons why we find it difficult to get good ideas. Many of us fail to see the overlap between different bodies of knowledge and as a result, the probabilities of finding good ideas become slimmer than ever.

Here’s an example of a good idea I bent into a quote:

Everything reverts into a state of chaos. Order is enforced by power

– Promise Tewogbola

To get the first part of my quote, I borrowed from my limited understanding of the second law of thermodynamics as explained in physics and chemistry. In addition, I observed that any time I vacuumed my room and put it in order, it was only a matter of time before I found the need to clean the room again. This is because of the tendency for everything to fall into disrepair if left to be by itself. The second part of the quote was gotten from my realization that it took effort on my part to put my room back into order.

The more I thought about my quote, the more I realized that it was a pretty good idea that had practical value in the real world. For instance, if you are in a romantic relationship and you refuse to talk about issues in the relationship with your better half, it would only be a matter of time before chaos becomes the order of the day in that relationship. However, the moment you take the effort to engage in uncomfortable conversations with your partner, you would dramatically improve the quality of your relationship. The same thing happens when you are trying to keep fit. The fact that you worked had in the gym 5 months ago does not mean that you would be in shape 5 months from now. If you expend the time and effort to get in shape, only to rest your oars, you would find your shape reverting back into that initial state of ‘shapelessness’ and chaos. So, to keep in shape, you have to embrace personal power with yourself and expend the effort in beating yourself back into the image you desire.

Everything is connected in one form or the other. If you want to consistently find good ideas, stop compartmentalizing your life. Rather, approach life with the paradigm of connectedness. Make it your responsibility to find associations and applications that link seemingly diametrically opposed bodies of knowledge. You will be positively surprised by the sheer quantity and quality of the good ideas you churn in the long run.

Good Ideas Come to the Expectant Mind

After being equipped with the paradigm of seeing everything connected, the next ingredient for sourcing good ideas is to have an expectation for them. The role that our expectations play in our lives cannot be overemphasized. While there are people who are conscious of the inter-relatedness of things, they are so many people who subconsciously believe that they are not smart enough to come up with good ideas. This pattern of thinking is not only toxic to good ideas, it is also capable of forcing people into mediocre existences because their expectations have been trained to work against them.

The truth is that your expectations determine your experiences.

If you know that everything is connected and you expect that one way or the other, you would find those associations, it is only a matter of time before you start seeing those associations.

There are different ways people activate their expectations towards good ideas. Some people have a thinking cap they wear whenever they want to come up with good ideas. Some other people have a thinking spot in their houses or somewhere in their towns where they regularly go to for good ideas. Personally, I take a two-legged approach. First, I try to stir curiosity in my mind. The person who felt that curiosity killed the cat made the wrong diagnosis. I am genuinely interested in learning new things because I know that a good idea can be birthed by virtue of my exposure to new information. Secondly, I try to move around with a small notebook that fits my pocket. That way, I have a physical way to show my expectation to come in contact with good ideas. And when the ideas do come, I am already equipped with the tools to capture them.

For all the flak that the law of attraction has received over the years, this is actually one area of your life where there are undeniable proofs that it works. If you consistently expect a good idea to come whenever you wear a stupid cap, it’s only a matter of time before that becomes your experience. If you continue to expect good ideas to come at you when you sit on a silly chair in your house, or you are in a particular corner in your city’s park, your expectations will not be cut short and in time, you will start experiencing the awe that accompanies good ideas. If you embrace a curious heart for novel ideas, you will experience them, and if you walk around with a notebook to capture good ideas, it’s only a matter of time before you start attracting them like ants to sugar.

Good Ideas Come When You Consistently Celebrate the Mundane

Many people associate good ideas with lightning and fireworks. Nothing can be further from the truth.

The good idea behind the quote – ‘Where there is no order, stagnation is bound to be the order of the day!‘ – came in the middle of terrible traffic. A part of the idea behind my quote – ‘Everything reverts into a state of chaos. Order is enforced by power’ – came from me observing how my room gradually became disorganized over time. If you live in a big city, you are likely going to find yourself in terrible traffic at some point and if you have a place where you live, it is likely that you have had to rearrange your room times without number. Yet, not many people would have been able to take advantage of the mundane routine in their lives to come up with good ideas.

The reason is simple. Many people are not present to the moment. And the number one reason why a lot of people are not present to the moment is because of fear. People are afraid of the past, the present, as well as the future. They have a constant fear of the unknown constantly humming in the back of their minds. They are worried sick about things that are either out of their control, or won’t matter once the facts are changed.

The moment you deliberately choose to be present to the moment and actively engage with the mundane events of day-to-day living, you separate yourself from the myriads of individuals walking with their minds miles and years away from their physical bodies. By so doing, you place yourself in an advantageous position where you are likely going to find a good idea that escaped the consciousness of every other person.