English Listening Podcast - How I Think of Ideas

welcome to the listening Time Podcast hey everybody this is Connor and you're listening to episode 170 of the listening Time Podcast thank you all for listening I hope you're doing well I hope that your English learning is going great and that you're ready for another episode today I want to talk about how I think of ideas uh how do I come up with different ideas for this podcast uh for other things that I do how do I come up with my ideas in general by the way the phrasal verb come up with refers to when

you think of something you think of this thought this idea Etc so how do I think of idea is I think this is a really interesting topic and the reason why I want to talk about it today uh is because I was listening to uh this French YouTuber talking about the creative process and he was talking about this topic and uh I realized that I Agreed 100% with what he was saying saying um he was talking about how people uh come up with creative things creative ideas uh and I realized that this was really true

for me so I want to talk about this because I think a lot of you uh will also be able to identify with this and maybe this will give you uh some ideas about how you can help yourself be more creative and think of ideas for your work or your life uh in an easier way so I'm sure that this episode will be interesting for all of you and as always remember that if you feel ready to start practicing with real English spoken at normal speed then make sure to sign up for my Advanced podcast

episodes in those episodes I speak faster than I speak in these normal episodes I speak at normal speed but of course I also provide the transcript to help you understand what I'm saying if you're interested in those Advanced episodes then make sure to go down and click on the link to sign up to become a listening Time family member and and if you want my us conversations podcast in which I talk to native speakers from different parts of the country about different topics and I provide the transcript with the definitions of keywords and phrases that

we use if you want that as well then you can go down and click on the link to sign up and it's a lot of fun it's very educational I have some very interesting conversations with people from all over the country uh for example I just recently recorded an episode with someone from Mississippi from the south and it was great to be able to talk about the south of the US and Southern Culture so that's the type of cultural experience that you get when you listen to my us conversations episodes so the link to sign

up is down below all right let's get started are your ears ready you know what time it is it's listening time all right let me talk first about what people normally do when they want to come up with ideas so when people need to think of ideas for uh a project that they're doing or for anything uh that requires them to think of an idea then what they typically do is they sit down at their desk or their table and they try to think of ideas and they make a list of ideas on their computer

or they write it on a piece of paper and they really try to concentrate and think of different things uh think of different ideas and maybe they search on the internet uh or whatever but really they do it in this type of environment and this makes sense of course uh we sit down at our desk uh as if we were working and we try to come up with ideas I've done this many times especially because I have to think of ideas for topics for this podcast and for uh my other material for my membership all

of that right however the problem with this is that this is the environment in which we're the least creative I don't know if you've realized this but but when we're sitting at our desk at our uh normal uh place where we work and uh we have uh just the normal things around us that we always have when we're working this is typically not a creative environment this isn't an environment uh that is conducive to coming up with new and interesting and creative ideas when we say that something is conducive to something else we're saying that

this helps that other thing uh happen or be produced so sitting down at our desk in our normal work environment is not uh the most conducive to uh our being able to come up with new ideas and this is a shame because this is where people tend to do this this is where I tend to do this and um this is where we think we can be productive and produce good ideas and sometimes we can of course however I've noticed that in my experience uh this is not where my best ideas are actually produced uh

I don't know if you've heard this before but a lot of people talk about um having interesting thoughts or ideas while they're taking a shower and people kind of joke about this but it's actually true I don't know if you've ever EXP experienced this before but uh it's common for people to have uh some interesting thoughts and ideas while they're showering and this is something that I've experienced and it's a pretty interesting thing like why would we come up with interesting ideas while we're in the shower that's a little bit strange right however uh the

truth behind this is that ideas tend to come to us when we're actually in a different environment than the environment um like at our desk where we normally work or study for example and ideas tend to come when we're not actually really trying to think of them when we're not forcing ourselves to come up with new ideas and so if we're at our desk forcing ourself to think of all these new ideas that isn't actually where we come up with our best ideas uh if we think of the shower example that I just gave uh

this is a different environment uh not an environment where we're supposed to be working it's an environment where you're relaxing just washing yourself uh you probably don't go into the shower uh thinking that you're going to be productive in there right however uh this happens and you think of uh new ideas or maybe you're able to think of solutions to certain problems that you've been having while you're in the shower and you might just have really interesting thoughts and so I was thinking about that and I was listening to this French YouTuber talk about this

and talk about this uh process of getting outside of your normal work environment and uh being able to think of a lot of ideas when you're not there at your work station your work desk for example and I thought of the other places where I have creative thoughts and where ideas tend to come to my mind just out of the blue by the way the phrase out of the blue means that something happens with no warning it just suddenly happens so uh I thought of a few different situations um in which I tend to think

of uh ideas for this podcast for my membership for um new projects that I want to do uh and I think of solutions to problems that I'm having I thought of a few different situations in which this tends to happen so the first one is when I'm walking outside I do a lot of walking I walk a lot I mean a lot like every day basically and sometimes for a couple hours a day it just depends on the day but I walk a lot and I love this it's one of my favorite activities it helps

me um destress it helps me uh feel better uh physically and mentally and when I walk uh and I'm walking around my neighborhood for example the ideas start flowing uh the verb flow refers to when something is freely moving from one place to another another like we say that uh a river flows the water moves freely uh and consistently uh down this River so the ideas start flowing and uh it feels like my mind is more open uh to new ideas uh it's not as uh stressed and just thinking in the same way that it

always thinks and it's not in work mode and my brain just feels uh Freer and like I said the ideas just start flowing even if I'm not really forcing myself to think of uh a bunch of different things and I just feel inspired when I walk talk it's pretty interesting uh ideas come out of the blue uh when I'm not uh forcing myself to think of them and that change uh in my environment from my workspace to uh the outdoors really just uh awakens um I think my creativity uh when something awakens something else that

means it wakes it up it inspires it it uh produces it right so uh my creativity is awakened when I'm walking outside and suddenly I'll have an idea for my next podcast episode I think that happens a lot uh it tends to happen when I'm not really trying to think of ideas uh because I try to think of ideas for for this podcast um here at my desk and I pull up my document on my computer uh where I have my list of ideas and it's very hard to think of ideas when I do that

however uh when I go walking those ideas just come naturally and easily it's amazing how that happens so uh if you need to think of new ideas for something that's one thing you might want to try you might want to try walking outside in a nice area uh maybe in nature or anywhere really where you like to walk and you might see that these ideas just start flowing and you feel more creative and I recommend that you try it because it works for me uh another situation in which I tend to think of ideas is

when I run and uh this was really true uh a couple years ago uh when I first started my membership uh and I had to think of uh how I was going to uh produce content through my membership and uh how this business model would work and during that time uh I would uh run a lot and I would always have uh my French podcast that I was listening to uh at that time I wasn't learning French seriously but I've always kind of done some type of language learning as an adult so even if I'm

not uh learning something seriously I'm still usually uh listening to Something in the background and kind of um learning a language even if I'm not serious about it and at that time it was French I definitely wasn't serious about it but I would put on this podcast uh this French podcast when I would run and I thought that I would focus on that French podcast but that never happened what would always happen was I would start running and then suddenly I would start thinking about uh my business so to say my new membership and I

would just have idea after idea and I would think of all these different things it was crazy how that would happen but it would happen every time I would run and when my run was over I would realize that I had no idea what the french podcast episode was about because all I had done was thought about uh these different ideas for my business um so whenever I would run uh when uh I was in that period when I had to think of ideas for my membership um whenever I would run I would just have

tons of ideas uh and I wasn't running in the most beautiful place or whatever um I was running outside and just that change of environment not some really beautiful place like I said but just that change of environment was very conducive to creativity and uh I think that uh those running sessions really helped me um think of of the different things I needed to do to start my membership which of course I still have today so uh running is another thing that has helped me uh think of ideas in the past and uh another situation

uh in which I tend to think of creative ideas and I tend to just think better overall and have a clearer mind is when I'm traveling this is one of my favorite things about traveling uh I love traveling like most of you do uh but one specific thing that I like about traveling is that it allows me to take a step back as we say this means that you kind of uh remove yourself from the situation ation and you see things from uh a broader perspective a wider perspective you have a change of scenery which

kind of uh gets you out of your normal mode and you can just reflect more effectively in that type of situation this always happens to me literally 100% of the time when I travel I reflect on my life my work my future my past different things and I always have very deep and uh very meaningful thoughts and ideas uh when I'm traveling I don't know if you've experienced this or not but this is something that happens 100% of the time when I travel this is the best way I think to remove yourself from your normal

environment and to be in a completely different state of mind and that change really Sparks uh the thought process the creative process it really Sparks all of that when something Sparks something else this means that it causes this other thing to happen it produces this other thing so that huge change of scenery change of environment uh really Sparks um the process of coming up with new ideas thinking more clearly about uh problems or just normal things uh in your everyday life your work things like that uh when you're traveling you're in a completely different environment

and you can see things from a completely different angle and I remember last year when I was traveling I had probably my most creative business idea that I've ever had and I haven't implemented this idea uh and I might never do this but but when I think of this idea uh it's definitely something that's very out of the box uh this means that it's not conventional it's uh something that is very different from what is normal for me so I had my most outof the-box idea that I think is a pretty interesting business idea but

I don't know if I'll ever do it but I'm impressed that I even thought of this idea because it's something that um is very different from what I do and it's a pretty cool idea I think um but that's something that I probably never would have thought of uh just here at my desk it's something that just came to me when I was traveling and uh it's um kind of Representative of just what always happens to me when I travel I always have interesting thoughts and ideas and I always reflect uh in a better way

when I'm traveling so that's one other situation in which I come up with ideas and one last situation I wanted to mention is that I come up with ideas when I'm talking to other people I don't know if this has happened happened to you before but this has definitely happened to me uh when I talk to other people it gets me out of uh just my own thoughts it um removes me from that uh context where it's just me alone thinking and trying to solve problems or come up with ideas and I'm just talking to

another person and I see another point of view I see things from their point of view and I hear about their experience and when that happens the creativity starts flowing and uh just engaging with other people helps me to come up with solutions to my own problems uh or ideas that I want to implement and these things are inspired by uh that conversation that I'm having with uh that other person and uh I think this is natural because you hear about another person who is dealing with other things in their life and they talk about

their experience and uh their ideas and the solutions to their problems Etc and all of this helps you uh analyze your issues and your problems and your life more effectively because you're getting ideas from the other person and uh you are using their experience and uh their ideas as uh a way to think of your own right and uh I also wanted to mention this uh situation because this is actually how I came up with the idea to start this podcast I didn't just think of this when I was thinking of new projects to do

I was talking to a Brazilian girl uh because I was having uh a Portuguese class and uh during that conversation she mentioned that she had a podcast and immediately this idea just came to me and I knew that I had to do this I knew that it was the perfect project to start it was literally just that conversation with that Brazilian girl and from that point on I've been doing this podcast uh thanks to uh the idea that came to me during that Portugese tutoring session so um even this podcast came from uh that context

so I think that's pretty cool uh I hope that this has given you ideas about how you can spark your own creativity and think of ideas more effectively remove yourself from just your normal everyday work situation where you're just thinking of things alone at your desk and try these other things that I mentioned and see what happens all right I hope you enjoyed this episode and I want to encourage you to challenge yourself with my Advanced podcast episode if you want to sign up for them the link is down below in the episode description and

I also want to encourage you to start practicing listening to two people talking and not just one and so you can listen to my us conversations podcast if you want to do that the link to sign up is also down below all right thank you so much for listening to this episode and I'll talk to you on the next episode of listening time