Integrated marketing solutions are all about thinking of things in new, exciting ways. At lotus823, we know that sometimes to find the voice you’re familiar with you have to take your mind to somewhere unfamiliar, outside your comfort zone.
Our best ideas and marketing solutions come from breaking the complacency and giving the subconscious a voice.
Here’s a list we’ve compiled to mine your mind for that interesting stuff beneath the surface.
Turning Old Ideas on Their Heads:
1. Keep a Dream Journal
At a job interview a years and years back, I was asked how much money I wanted to make my first year. I said my number, and the interviewer asked where I came up with the figure. I replied, honestly, that it came to me in a dream. Try keeping a dream journal. Not only will it help you remember your dreams more vividly but you will also eventually be able to dream lucidly and manipulate your surroundings. Studies have shown that many innovative ideas come to you in the first moments of wakefulness, so how better to change your way of thinking than with vivid dreams?
2. See the World Differently
If you look at the same things a different way, or take different paths to same destination, your results will be different, too. When I need a new angle, I like to literally see a new angle. It helps, sometimes, to leave a room and re-enter it imagining that it has shifted 90 degrees. The room will look the same, but the directions will feel different. It takes practice, but it’s an interesting creative space to inhabit. Also, try taking a different route to work each day. See a new part of your town, and your ideas will change accordingly.
3. Create Associations Where There Are None
When you’ve grown tired of an idea, perhaps a word you use a lot or a picture you like to insert, create new associations. You can do this a couple ways. I like free image association: Assign random images to your tired ideas. If you use the word “synergy” a lot, imagine a picture for it, i.e. a light bulb, a dress, and draw it on a piece of paper. Take a second idea and do the same. The image can be completely unrelated to the concept it signifies. Put the two pictures next to each other and think about how they could work together. Say you’ve drawn a dress and a flower; you could think “marriage” instead of “synergy.”
These are methods that have worked for me. Give them a shot!
How are you changing tired thought patterns? Leave us a comment below and let us know.