As lawyers, we tend to spend less time and energy on getting ideas than performing due diligence on other people’s ideas. And yet, we need ideas to grow.

We need ideas for marketing and managing our practice, for personal development, and for creating content (articles, blog posts, videos, emails, etc.)

And, although we rarely develop new services (or products),  getting ideas for these can help us improve our existing services.

So, ideas are good. Now, where do we get ’em?

Read a lot. And take notes. 

Observe what other people are doing, in your field and in other fields or businesses, and take notes.

Talk to people about what they’re doing. Yep, more notes. 

And then, put those notes away, forget about what you’ve read or observed, and let the ideas come to you. Let your subconscious mind find them and bring them to your attention. 

Take walks. Take vacations. Play games, watch sports, get some sleep. The ideas will come because your subconscious mind never sleeps. 

It will sift through your thoughts about the things you read and observed and wrote in your notes and find ideas that are in sync with your goals and desires and vision for the future. 

In other words, it will show you your best ideas. 

When those ideas don’t come, after a period of time I re-read my notes. Sometimes, the idea pops out at me. Sometimes I put the notes away again and come back to them later. And sometimes, the ideas don’t come, probably because I’m not ready for them, so I keep reading, observing and making notes.

The key to getting better ideas is getting lots of ideas. And then letting the best ideas come to you. 

Ideas for marketing your services