Looking to Keep Your Ideas Fresh? This Isn’t Just for Creatives

Chris Vizzini
Jul 17
2 min read

In this Post:

A low-stakes way to unlock high-impact thinking
How to retrain your brain to see hidden inspiration
Not just for creatives
A simple exercise you can do anywhere

Keeping ideas fresh matters, no matter what you do. And really, that all comes down to perspective. Life gets busy, and sometimes it’s easy to lose that. It’s easy to forget to actually look at the world around us.

And no, I don’t mean global events. I mean the opposite. What’s happening in our own world is something to check out of every now and then, just so we can check back into our own space and notice what’s right in front of us. The little things we miss when we’re caught up on the day to day.

Sometimes all it takes is a pause to see what’s been there all along

Ready to Open Your Mind?

Here's a quick game that hits all of that. It’s fun, fast, and you can do it right now, wherever you are.

Write down your initials and stare at them for a sec. Don’t think of them as letters, think of them as shapes. Look at the lines, the curves, how they bend.
Look around for objects or shapes that form those letters. Not things with letters on them but shapes that look like your initials. Try different angles: top, side, crouch down, walk around. Let the shapes come to you.
Only rule: you can’t move anything except yourself.
Take a photo of each letter form from you initials you find.

Example

Take a look at my exmaple for the initials CV. I shot mine in a pretty dark room, so yeah—some blur from camera shake. But that's ok, I went with it. Made the shapes feel like they were buzzing with energy.

At first glance, they kind of look like letters, right?

But when you crop and rotate? The letters appear. It's all about perspective.

So what’s the point?

This game trains your brain to see the world around you in a new way. To notice things you might not notice otherwise. After some practice, you’ll start to see things come to life right in front of you and the ideas will follow. That’s where the real magic happens.

Inspiration is everywhere if you just keep your eyes peeled.

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out.