How to get your eureka moment?

Eureka!

/ˌjʊ(ə)ˈriːkə/

 

exclamation

1.     a cry of joy or satisfaction when one finds or discovers something.

"The answer hit me. ‘Eureka!’ I cried"

 

It might seem confusing now but keep this definition in mind. It will come in handy in just a moments time.

Aha! Have you ever said or even felt that in a sudden burst of expression? That moment of pure bliss in the form of ideas, brighter than the sun. Its rare right? Sitting frustratingly, in front of information blackholes staring down the darkness of a blank voids, soleless, without ideas, trying to push those glass ceilings and boundary walls for some light of hope in the form of inspiration, we all try to think outside the box. But we just can’t see that ray of light, often thinking, we are just going blind. But it’s not just you or me. It was the same for one tiny man named Archimedes. In the 3rd century BC after being asked by his king to make a boat of unprecedented scale that would carry luxuries beyond imagination, weighing beyond measure. It seemed impossible to engineer something of that fashion which would just stay afloat nevertheless sail the merciless oceans.

After sitting on the problem for months, one day he was seen running the streets of Sicily naked with a crown in his hand shouting “eureka, eureka!” creating not only a spectacle for the crowds but also creating history for generations to come. Moment before the infamous run, sitting in a bathtub, ideal without thought, he suddenly found himself with a solution to his great problem, how to keep his boat afloat. Now, without getting into the technical of what the solution was, lets focus on what triggered this and some of the greatest ideas in the world, like Einstein’s tram ride away from the clock tower, or the Kekule’s dream about snakes seizing its own tail or the infamous apple that fell on Newton’s head.

If you notice, all the incidents I just mentioned, just like Archimedes, none of the other discoveres were really thinking about their discoveries. Their minds sat ideal without any focus on the problem. This is what eureka really is. Eureka moments are like flashes of insight because they often come out a period when the mind isn’t focused on the problem, what psychologists call a period of incubation. Incubation is the stage where people briefly step back from their work. Many of the most productive creative people intentionally set a project aside and take a physical break from their work believing that this incubation stage is where ideas begin to come together below the threshold of the conscious mind.

So, if you want to see that ray of hope in the form of inspiration, don’t try staring down the barrel of darkness, sit back relax and close your eyes for a few minutes. Try not to think about the problem, think about tomorrow, think about life and its various possibilities, or to keep things simple think about your next meal, or what movie to watch. The next time you open your eyes, you will see that ray of hope as bright as the open sky, literally and you may just shout out eureka!