Sitting For Ideas

Many years ago, Napoleon Hill wrote about the technique of sitting for ideas in his book Think and Grow Rich. It can be a very useful technique if we are trying to solve a problem, plan a future course of direction, or simply to gain some insight. We could think of it as brainstorming for one.

First, we need a quiet place where we will be undisturbed... a library, a study, or a similar place where we can sit comfortably at a desk or table and not be distracted or interrupted.

All we need are a pencil or pen and a large pad of paper.

We sit quietly, relaxed, with our eyes closed.

We mentally frame the problem or issue, in a single sentence, as clearly and concisely as we can.

We mentally repeat the problem statement softly, and then we allow our consciousness to relax, quietly centered in our own Being, our own inner Self.

Soon we will begin to experience thoughts, ideas, flashes of intuition, sensations, even images. They may come rapidly in succession. Some will be concrete enough that we can describe them in words.

We open our eyes and begin to write down these thoughts as rapidly as we can. We simply write them down. We don't filter our thoughts, we don't critically evaluate what we have written. We don't worry about fragmented thoughts or incomplete sentences or misspelled words... we just write.

Eventually the flood of thoughts and ideas will diminish and finally stop. It may take only a few minutes or even an hour. Then we look at what we have written and critically evaluate it to see if there are any useful ideas that could provide the basis for action to accomplish the goal of solving our problem.

This is a time-honored technique. Whenever I use it, I am amazed at how productive and effective it is.