Growing up with little entertainment and a lot of old metal parts, I was often trying to put random metal or wood things together, you know, for fun. I would use what we had to make but mostly failed. For two summers in a row, I tried to get a full size wagon wheel/hub to be the back wheel of an old bicycle. These attempts both failed (and left scars that I still have) but I still remember the thought processes and problem solving that went into my attempt to widen the space for the back wheel. Looking back, I didn’t have a good plan. I tried for hours and hours though.

An idea that constantly comes up regarding long term success is to try many things and have lots and lots of ideas. Most will fail or never materialize, but simply because you’ve had so many, some rise to the top. Yesterday I was blogging about how millions of ideas are just waiting in the realm of education. I was thinking about doing a weekly ideation session. Now, I wonder if it could be my daily blog.

Puzzle Shift Create is essentially the framework I could use. Instead of being a class that teaches about innovation, why not just dive straight into innovation and make the class an outgrowth of that. Daily email prompts could be a useful avenue for gaining creative flow in your own practice.

It’s feeling like the birth of a new, big idea over here. It doesn’t fit… yet. It is a little like putting that big wheel on that bike. Maybe third times the charm.