I'd
been thinking about telling you this for some time and kept
forgetting. But last week, I captured the thought on paper and the
result is you're reading about it right now. But, mixed in with the business-as-usual thoughts are great thoughts and ideas. Your best thoughts and ideas about your business and personal life bubble to the surface in your conscious mind and then are lost faster than cash at the race track betting window. Thoughts and ideas like: Thoughts
like those above and thousands of others are lost each day. Some times
they resurface for you, other times the thought ocean undertow claims
them for others to discover and put into action. There
are almost as many ways to capture ideas for your horse business as
there are bits for a horse's mouth. But just like bits, the favorites
should get tried first. Index cards-
don't leave them in the package! Spread them around. Keep a few in the
barn, in the truck, on your desk, next to your bed and in your pocket.
Collect them daily, rubber band them and look at them several times a
week. Post it notes-buy
3-M brand only. The sticky part on the knock-off brands is as useless
as a 3 foot lead rope. If you use a pencil based calendar planner,
stick your thoughts on the pages of the calendar on the appropriate
days. Spiral pocket notebook- buy pocket sized only, in multiple packs. Get in the habit of carrying one with you. Moleskine-
these are impressive and this classic notebook of choice of writers and
artists. Not only cool looking, it frames your thoughts as you re-read
them. Good enough for Hemmingway, good enough for me.
You and I do a
lot of thinking each day the experts tell us. You may be surprised at
this, but research estimates you may have 40,000 to 60,000 thoughts
each day. Even though that sounds like a tremendous amount of
thinking, most of your thoughts are repeat thoughts.
Thoughts like:
Cell phone: Dial, dictate, done. Call a phone number and your words are automatically transcribed, captured and e-mailed back to you with service called Jott.com
PDA's Once
you make the shift to electronic notes, these are extremely useful
tools for capturing thoughts and converting them to notes. However,
even though PDA's are durable, they're not as forgiving as paper when
your horse's foot is standing on it. Personally, I log a lot of my work day at a desk focused on a computer screen and talking on the telephone. It requires concentration and as a result, my best thoughts do not occur while I'm engaged in work.
I've used the above methods to capture brilliant and not so brilliant
thoughts while feeding, mucking stalls, being a tractor jockey and
cooling out a horse. If you want to make more money in your horse business, capture your ideas and take action on the best!
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