119. Creating the Aha Moment | 靈光乍現的瞬間
– Musings of Dr. Jamie C. Hsu, 7.21.2021
I am sure that you have experienced an Aha moment before and felt good about it. It could be an idea to increase the sale, a plan to expand your business, or a solution to deal with a difficult relationship. Such inspiration seems to come from nowhere and occurs at a random time — while you are driving, shaving, showering or doing laundry. How and where do these creative ideas come from?
Actually, such inspirational ideas are created by a combination of conscious and subconscious efforts. They are generated when our minds go through stages and cycles of stress and relaxation. More specifically, we go through the “immersion, analysis, incubation, and eureka” stages.
When faced with a tough problem, we first spend a lot of time collecting facts and exploring possible solutions. We are totally immersed in the problem at hand. We read relevant articles and books, we consult experts in the field, and we explore various scenarios and options. Our mind is fully occupied and under a lot of pressure to produce good solutions.
But if that is the case and you are getting nowhere, then it is time to switch from immersion to incubation. Let go of the project and do something totally unrelated. Take a walk, listen to nice music, mow the lawn, watch the clouds drift by, or take a hot bath. Give your conscious mind a break and let your subconscious take over. Quite often, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by some good ideas creeping into your mind. You have created the Aha /Eureka moment, as a reward from your prior work in analysis and immersion, and the reservoir of knowledge you have collected over the years.
The next time you are faced with a big and challenging project, give this process a try and see if this staged idea-generation method works for you. It may take several tries, but the Eureka moments will be worth all your effort.
靈光乍現的瞬間
-作者 許俊宸博士
-中譯 薛乃綺
我相信你肯定曾經體驗過”啊哈”這樣的時刻，而且對此感到很開心。那個時刻可能是增加營業額的想法、擴展業務的計畫或者處理某些困難關係的解決方案。而這樣的靈感似乎無所不在，可能出現在開車時、刮鬍子時、洗澡時、洗衣服時的某個一瞬間。如此的創意到底如何得來、又從哪裡來？
事實上，這些鼓舞人心的想法是透過有意識以及潛意識的組合而來的。它可能在我們的思想經歷了壓力和放鬆的週期階段後，啪就突然湧上心頭。更具體地說，我們會經歷”沉浸、分析、孵化、以及靈光乍現”的幾個階段。起初，我們会閱讀相關文章和書籍、諮詢領域專家，並且去探索各種情境以及選項。我們的心智被全面啟用、並且承受產生好的解決方案的巨大壓力。
如果這是你現在的處境，而且你一無所獲，那麼是時候從沉浸階段進入到孵化了。先整個放掉，去做一些完全沒關係的事情。去散散步、聽聽美妙的音樂、修剪草坪、看白雲藍天、甚至去洗個熱水澡。讓你的大腦休息一下，讓潛意識來接管。很多時候，你會因為一些好主意溜進你的腦袋中而感到興奮。那就是你創造了啊哈/靈光乍現的時刻，這是從你過往做過的分析和沉浸工作的反饋，靈感也来自你多年來收集的寶貴知識庫。
下次當你面臨一個巨大艱難的項目時，試試這個過程，看逐步階段產生創意的方式是否適合自己。這可能需要嘗試個幾次，但靈光乍現、豁然開朗的那個瞬間，是值得你付出所有努力的。
