Ever have an epiphany? Some days I have them several times, and some days nothing happens that warrants notice. Actually, I think the epiphanies still happen, I just don’t notice or have the wherewithal to record them.

The best ones, of course, are written down and acted upon later. Sometimes much later. Sometimes I’m sitting there, or doing something like running, and it just hits me unannounced. Sometimes I have to flex some mental muscle and force a thought into existence. It reminds me of the difference between Mozart and Beethoven.

Did you ever notice how much it helps to have a pen? You can write down your epiphany, or better yet, doodle it and make it a #PowerToThePen entry:

You never know what’s going on in your own mind, do you? I often don’t. Sometimes I marvel at the thoughts my unconscious mind is able to generate, ideas that I could never conjure by trying. I find myself thinking “Where do I get this stuff?” and “Why is my brain smarter than me?”

I think you can tell when someone came up with something by working hard at it, and when something struck them like lightning. My post The Ten Essentials: How To Get Noticed in the Content Marketing Storm was just such an epiphany. It hit me out of the blue one morning, and I ran to the nearest coffee house and it just flowed onto the page.

My video presentation The Bunny, the Chicken, and Data Analytics was created with a little effort, but it too flowed forth once I honed the idea a little. I’ve also created numerous presentations and animations that were sketches first, or even scribbled into a tablet.

So let your mind wander once in awhile. Daydreaming can really flex your creative muscles. You can do a lot with a pen and a little epiphany.