I recently was able to recover a long lost Aridni post called “How to have ten thousand ideas in five minutes.

Ever try to tell someone about an idea and it the process it seems to grow at an alarming rate? Ideas have a tendency to quickly spawn new ideas at a rapid pace, but only when your mind starts to think about them and the possibilities.

Just having ideas and encouraging them to grow will help you gain an entire arsenal of fresh ideas. You might not get a chance to try them all, but you will certainly be prepared if one of them doesn’t work out as well as you planned.

Using your mind for developing concepts and ideas takes a bit of practice. The amount of ideas that you can generate are up to you, as is the quality of them. You won’t always get all winners, but you will certainly be able to get a good number of them. Honestly you really only need one of them to take off, so don’t stress out to much if you can’t quickly come up with a great idea right off the bat.

Two ways to help your ideas expand quickly is to tell somebody about it or write it down. These both force you to think about the idea. More neurons will fire off and more connections will be made. So the next time you are not sure exactly what you want to do with your idea, tell somebody about it. Draw it out and use your brain. That is what you have it for after all.

**There is a similar post from earlier this month that has just been recovered from a database error right after I finished this post. How to have ten thousand ideas in five minutes**

Your life’s ultimate goal is to become your best self.

I often think about what the best version of ourselves is–is it being a successful business person, a great parent, a crusader for local causes? I’ve come to the conclusion that these elements don’t create the definition of a person. Even though the first thing we ask strangers is, “What do you do for a living?”, it doesn’t mean that profession is our definition. These pieces help to define the background of who we are.

The best version of ourselves is the point where we feel confident in who we are and what we’re achieving and still capable of doing. It’s the point of ethics that we most value. Society has general definitions of ethics about food, religion, sex, etc. etc.

Your immediate goal is to start taking the road that is going to get you to your best self.

Read and listen to what others feel. Experience your world and cultivate your own perceptions. The best way seems to be by taking money out of the picture–if money didn’t matter, how would you live (such as eating organic or local foods), what would you do (write novels instead of climbing corporate ladders), and how would you spend your time (in the flower garden instead?).

No one ever knows exactly what we want in life. The key is to define a few of the things we do want and don’t want. Then start hiking.

I had an incredible experience–an upgrade to a first class seat on an international flight after a nightmare checkin disaster.

While enjoying the luxury of fully reclining seats and table cloths on my tray at meals, I noticed the man next to me. He was reading the duty free catolgue. And he was jotting down the duty free prices of cigarettes.

How strange. Sitting in first class. Figuring out ways to pinch pennies on cigarettes when he flies home.