Rewire your brain: Revolutionize your life by writing down 10 ideas a day

In a recent article, Tim Denning explains how the habit of writing down 10 ideas every day helped best-selling author and investor James Altucher pull himself out of a deep depression and revolutionize his life.

Today, Altucher is the author of best-selling books that include Choose Yourself and Skip the Line. Plus, he is an advisor to some of the world’s best-known technology brands, including Airbnb, Google, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Quora.

Altucher found that adopting this practice filled his mind with dopamine, the brain’s naturally-occurring pleasure chemical. As a result, he couldn’t wait to write down his 10 ideas each day.

As he reached out to pitch companies, he did something brilliant - he brainstormed ideas and sent them to them - for free, with no expectation of anything in return!

Why is this important? Because Altucher realized that his brain is an inexhaustible source of ideas.

Most people view creative thinking as a zero-sum game - if I give some of my best ideas to you, then I have less.

In reality, creativity is infinitely generative. You can afford to be INCREDIBLY generous with your ideas, because “there’s a whole lot more where that came from,” as the saying goes.

One other key point to keep in mind: To profit from your ideas, you need to have a system for capturing your ideas, whenever and wherever they come to you. My system of choice: Evernote on my iPhone.

This article is excerpted from the NEXT/EDGE newsletter. It curates the latest trends, tools and strategies to help you amplify your success and make a bigger impact. It's designed to give you actionable insights you can apply to be more productive, creative and effective. Join the NEXT/EDGE community of innovators here.