Today’s Exponential Possibilities session with house Futurist, Craig Rispin, was a thought-provoking kick-off to the New Year. He shared an array of new concept products from CES (the biggest innovation show in the World) showcasing the future of consumer experience and the rapid speed of progress across many industries.
A prominent pearl of wisdom, was the idea of ‘Reimagining’ our lives and businesses from an entirely blank canvas, in order to gain a fresh perspective and allow for new thinking to provide new options.
This is about moving beyond simply making new plans, goals or strategies for our lives and businesses for 2022 and instead taking some time to step right outside of the current situation, in order to look through fresh eyes. In this way, inspiration and ideas can flow freely, unencumbered by the logical and ‘realistic’ part of our minds that can be a limitation to our vast abilities to create outside the box.
It may also show up outdated ways of doing things, ways of thinking, or other ruts that we may have inadvertently become stuck in, which is a great thing for those on the journey of creating life and business by design, instead of by default.
Here is an exercise which will support you to harness the power of your imagination and see beyond the blind spots of the logical mind, accessing inspiration, solutions and ideas that may seem so blindingly obvious once they’ve come into view, that you may even wonder how you didn’t see them before.
Start by taking some quiet time and centring yourself with a few minutes of heart-breathing, mindfulness, or your go-to practice to still yourself and clear your mind.
Then ask the following question several times, writing down everything that comes to you as you go, and repeating the question when you run out of new thoughts. (Remember we are going for your absolutely ideal scene here, so nothing is off-limits)
If I was creating my business from scratch today, with a magic wand at my disposal, how exactly would it be and how would it run?
When you have asked yourself several times and written down your answers, you can drill down further by describing exactly how it would look in the following areas:
Product/Service offering
Team
Processes/Automations
Your role (including hours, tasks etc)
Structure
Marketing/Sales
Customer experience
Financial
Impact
Any other areas that are relevant to your business or industry
When you’ve finished, you will have quite a clear picture of the dream version of your business. You may have had some ‘Aha’ moments and gained clarity through the process and might like to go back through your writing and glean any other gems that will help you making an inspiring and innovative plan for 2022.
This is also a powerful process to do with your Team. The key is to write down absolutely every thought or contribution, creating a safe space where Team members can let their inspiration run freely and really get into it.
