How To Reframe An Idea Into Something Worthy Of An Idea Virus
Thursday, February 21st, 2008How To Create A Winning Idea So That You Can Sell Your Writing–
In a day and age of information overload you are not paid to deliver content. Your book puts content in the context of your expert guidance. This is an important distinction and one that bears some time to discuss.
Content is merely that…information devoid of context, floating around in nothing. And when we speak of context, we are speaking of your target audience’s needs and wants. You need to be able to feel their pain and show your intended audience that you understand what they are going through.
The ideas you create should all be involved in solving your target market’s problems. To bring this home on how this should creation of your book, the late and great G.K. Chesterton summarizes the importance of analyzing problems first when he stated that the focus should not be on your book, but on understanding and magnifying your target market’s problems first.
Here is one way to create winning ideas or reframe an idea into something worthy of an Idea Virus (I will share with you other ways in later posts, but each way involves the three key principles as presented below): Complete a five minute exercise where you list as many ideas that are related to what you want to do. The key is to write everything down and do not pre-judge anything. This is the creative phase and you want to write as quickly as you can. Do not reflect at all on your ideas. The personal reflection comes in the next phase.
The key to brainstorming and recording all your ideas is that it allows your subconscious to begin to find relationships among your ideas. There are three relationships that your mind will look at when analyzing your ideas. I call this the ‘Triad Of Analysis’. The great philosopher Socrates first espoused this concept over 2300 years ago. It involves your mind analyzing a) the similarity of your ideas (What are your ideas like?); b) The contiguity of your ideas (How are your ideas related to each other?); and c) the contrasting nature of your ideas (How are your ideas different?).
The key with this process is to use it actively after listing ideas involving the contiguity and contrasting aspects of your ideas. The real genius with this system is that you activate your subconscious minds with this writing exercise (writing is the doing part of thinking) to find answers pertaining to the similarities of your ideas. What you have really done is use the science of reframing at a subconscious level to help you long after consciously engaging your mind with this exercise to help you find some powerful associations.
Remember what Dennis Waitley has to say about what you are paid to do in the new era in which we live, The Recommendation Age. “If you are an entrepreneur or knowledge worker, and as an author you definitely fit this description. Your success depends on how well you think. You are not paid to collect, sort, store, or retrieve information, although you may do all of these things. You are paid to interpret that information and to create and implement new ideas.”
Train your conscious mind to use the ‘Triad Of Analysis’ when creating and implementing new ideas. By using this system, you will leverage your subconscious mind to be on the look out for ideas that complement and raise awareness about ways to create solutions to your target market’s problems as you write your own book and create derivative products.
In my next post I will continue to provide you powerful writing tips to help you create your own system of self reflection. Remember, your success to do what Denis Waitley states above, is your ability to create a system of self reflection.
