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Think of any field or discipline. Regardless of what it is, whether it be art, business, social work, academics or science, progress and success in it are synonymous with creativity. The most successful people in any field are there because they had great ideas to better seize new opportunities, discover new frontiers or help those who need it. Most people don’t think they have it in them to think up big ideas like the best of us can. Those people are geniuses, aren’t they? Capable of far more than ‘normal’ humans can dream of. But as rare as genius is, it is still possible to turn yourself into an ideas type of person.

Your capacity for having ideas is like a muscle: if you leave it idle, it will grow weak. If you constantly work it out, it will grow stronger and more finessed. Just like real muscles, there are some people who don’t have to work that hard to produce results, but most of us really do. Regardless of which you are, as long as you don’t work your idea muscle, it won’t give you anything in return. It’s also important to have a high output volume of ideas: not every idea is a good idea. Still, statistically, the person who produces plenty of ideas all the time will eventually hit on one that is a winner and stimulates them to work on it to produce something amazing.

Commit to writing down ten new ideas every day. Concentrate mostly on your areas of expertise but do it as widely as possible. This is where being well-read helps a lot. It will be difficult at first and most of your ideas will be rubbish, but keep at it and it will become easier. Recognize that the bad ideas are required in order to get the good ones. When you land on an idea that kindles excitement in you, pursue it to its fullest extent. But don’t ever stop creating more ideas. Your ideas could help hundreds, thousands, and millions of people. Someone created the car, toaster, lightbulb, a rocket and the internet. How can you contribute to the world?