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Did you ever play that game — Follow the Leader — in school? The person in front has an idea, and everyone else does the same thing. You might think it’s a bunch of redundancy. Most times it is.

But it doesn’t have to be.

Here’s a recipe to use this game to kick start your brain.

How to Play Follow the Leader to Kick Start Your Brain

In my class, we made our own rules. The game was not only more interesting. It was a WHOLE LOT more fun! My secret is that I’ve used the premises of this silly game to kick start my brain in every job I’ve ever had.

Look around for the great leaders, the great thinkers, you admire.
Follow the leaders.
- Follow the folks who have ideas.
- Follow the folks who have confidence.
- Follow the folks who are positive.
- Follow the folks who are jazzed about what they do.
Follow the folks who know where they are going.
Pick one idea from one of the leaders you follow.
- Take it apart. Put it back together.
- Look at the idea from every direction you can.
- Find the parts that are only like the leader. Find the parts that are also like you.
Get to know the idea at a cellular level.
Take one tiny bit of that idea and replace it.
- If they’re on a tennis court, move to a movie theater.
- Move the idea to somewhere you understand.
In other words, make the idea your own.
Here’s the crucial part: Don’t try to write . . . play with the idea. While you do that also do something else that suits you:
- Listen to music.
- Go for walk.
- Take a shower.
- Dance in an elevator.
- Clean the refrigerator.
You know what works.
Follow your heart to make the idea your own.

Absolutely, positively do not go back to the source once you’ve started to play with the idea . . . until you’ve made the idea your own. Then all that’s left is to write, tell, or present your thoughts, and to remember to thank the leader who was your inspiration.

You get the idea. Actually with a little practice, my guess is that you’ll be getting more than one.

How do you usually kick start your brain?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

some days, some times of the year, what you planned just isn’t working. The kids are one place, and you’re in another one.

Any actor, any writer, any artist who performs for an audience, will tell you the same thing. Parents know it. Managers know it. The folks who care for animals know it too.

Ask any marketer. I bet you’ll hear that customers don’t behave according to plan.

When I used to work in an office, I called certain times of the year “karma-skew,” because they were predictably off. Those were by no means the only ones when it seemed that most folks in the building were, well, . . . a little bit . . . um . . . zany. I only wish. What we really were was bored and cranky.

Since the time that the world began, humans have had our explanations for this phenomena . . . the planets are misaligned. . . . The sun is breaking out in spots.

Any first grade teacher knows it happens before a rainstorm, or when the sky clears, or when there’s going to be a vacation day, or when it’s the first day back, or a special event, or hundred million other everyday catastrophes and celebrations.

Who cares why? It just does. A time comes when we need to change things up.

When it does . . . you set the plan aside, and you say, “I have an idea!”

Actually, I have lots of them. I have ideas about having ideas, about making friends, about being jazzed and productive — all things that are fun!

So let’s put the heavy thinking aside. Here’s a great place to start.

Don’t Hunt IDEAS — Be an Idea Magnet

What’dya think? Good idea? Are you ready to come along?