“I have an idea!”, I exclaim from the bedroom. “Of course, you do!”, Italian says carefully.
Ideas are not in short supply in my head.
I can’t go for a drive or a walk without an onslaught of ideas.
Like four or five. In ten minutes.
This kind of fruitful imagination may sound like a blessing. Just imagine – a constant stream of ideas, like a beautiful river in the forest.
However, in reality, it feels a bit more like this:
I have trouble keeping track.
When others talk about writer’s block – not knowing what to talk or write about – I sincerely do not know what that feels like. I have hundreds (yes, hundreds) of blog post drafts started.
My writer’s block is not from lack of ideas, but rather difficulty in staying still long enough to execute. It’s taking the idea from a seed to a full grown tree that is difficult. Organizing jumbled manic thoughts into coherent structure.
Spending ten days in Vipassana meditation few years ago was pure torture, because I had hours upon hours of quiet time, millions of ideas (yes, yes, I know that I was supposed to be meditating! and I did, I promise! But there were also minutes and hours between the sessions!), and no way of capturing them.
Some of them were brilliant, I am sure. Some were awful. Most were perfectly mediocre.
A year ago, I asked a friend to send me a list of words that described me, as part of a professional development seminar.
Along with words like “exuberant” and “vision”, she used the word “ideaphoria”.
“Can you use it in a sentence?”, I asked jokingly. It was a new word to me – I LOVE new words!
“Ideaphoria? Let’s see”.
“Ideaphoria is an experience where one feels a constant onslaught of new ideas, creating a euphoric state of idea creation”.
My head blew up.
There is a word for it??? That sometimes divine, and sometimes overwhelming sensation that follows me all day every day has a name?
My name is SOLO, and I am an ideaphoric.
The Johnson O’Connor Research Foundation (JOCRF) aptitude test is one of the assessments that measures ideaphoria. It takes over six hours over two days and costs a pretty penny. It is also designed to accurately reveal one’s natural cognitive strength and weaknesses and provide insight for educational and career decisions.
For a person with the high ideaphoria, the foundation suggests a career path as a creative specialist in an area of passion or interest, whether that’s teaching (check!) or writing (check!).
Teachers high in ideaphoria tend to use many different methods to deliver the material, encourage unorthodox solutions to problems, voice ideas at meetings, present at conferences and conventions, and connect lessons to the outside world.
Writing as a career path is also promising:
[quote]Ideaphoria, the ability to produce ideas quickly, is probably the most useful trait for any writing that requires imagination, such as fiction or motivational writing. Writers with ideaphoria may have such a vortex of ideas spinning through their heads that they will need the most expansive and unrestricted outlet, and imaginative writing most often provides this.[/quote]
Has anyone ever called you “too intense”?
You could just be a fellow ideaphoric.
I think we need a support group.
Interestingly, extremely high ideaphoria scores are often coupled with extremely low spatial ability scores (think mental paper folding test or 3D jigsaw puzzle).
I am directionally challenged to the point of disability – I am talking getting lost on my way to a yoga studio where I have been dozens of times. Although I think I finally memorized (because that’s the only thing I can do with spatial information) Ontario’s location relative to Quebec. Ontario is on the left. I think.
Of course, there is a multitude of jobs where scoring high in ideaphoria may be a recipe for disaster (or at least recipe for boredom).
[quote]For example, business executives, except those in marketing, tend to be lower in ideaphoria; they need to be able to focus on ideas one at a time and consider other people’s ideas more rather than necessarily generating their own. A person scoring high in ideaphoria can channel that manic flow into teaching, consulting, writing, marketing, product development, and any other pursuit where cranking out a high volume of ideas in a short period of time is a plus. [Source][/quote]
So, there you go… my attention span for this blog post is quickly running out.
In fact… I just had an idea!!!
Hugs, SOLO
Curious about ideaphoria? Check out these additional resources: