How Many Eureka Moments Did You Miss Today?

Million dollar ideas come to a lot of people — so why not YOU. The trick is, you need some type of system to capture these elusive “slippery fish.”

There was an article in Wired magazine titled, “Eureka.” It profiled a number of prominent people and where and when they received their breakthrough inspiration.

For example, J.K. Rowling received the idea for Harry Potter almost immediately on a stalled train on route from Manchester to London.

Authur Fry received the idea for sticky notes while singing in a church choir. And Reed Hastings came upon the idea for Netflix while upset over a late fee in his local video store.

The lesson here? You never know when inspiration might strike — so you need to be prepared to catch these often elusive and fleeting ideas.

One of my favorite (and I guess old fashioned) ways is to record notes in one of those moleskin notebooks. I like the fact they are fairly small, hard-bound and portable. I take it everywhere.

Other folks prefer to use a voice recorder which can capture your ideas quicker than writing.

Keep in mind, ideas do not often come fully formed. They often arrive in bits and fragments — so be sure to record them anyway. A key in this process is not to be too judgmental about your ideas. If you have one worth noting just write it down and forget about it.

Note: for those just starting: it’s a good idea to try to make notes at least 3-4 x per day. Even if you have nothing *seeemingly* noteworthy to jot down just put something down anyway.

The important thing is that it “programs” you into the HABIT of physically accessing your notebook and writing (or recording).

Who knows, your million dollar idea could happen TODAY while picking up the newspaper or a quick walk around the block.