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How Vacations Foster Creativity and Birth Great Ideas

Did you know 20% of startup ideas are thought up on vacation? Taking time off frees up your mind to focus on insight and creativity.
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What’s the Latest?

A survey of 1,000 entrepreneurs revealed a fascinating pattern with regard to startups and the bright ideas they’re built upon. It turns out an incredible 20% of said ideas were thought up while on vacation. Kevin Systrom, who founded Instagram in 2010, came up with the idea for the photo-sharing site while on a beach in Baja California (no doubt imagining what the white sands of Mexico would look like in sepia). As Hollie Slade of Forbes reports, the serenity of travel boosts mental health and promotes clearer thinking. Minds are allowed to wander in more creative directions when on vacation. Conversely, modern work culture promotes more narrow focuses of thought not conducive to new ideas.

What’s the Big Idea?

In the Forbes article, Slade discusses vacations and creative thought with Bryan Mattimore, author of Idea Stormers: How to Lead and Inspire Creative Breakthroughs. Mattimore states that, coupled with rest and clarity of mind, vacations offer a sense of newness that serves as excellent inspiration for new ideas. Experiencing new things breaks the monotony of life and boosts personal creativity.

If you can’t afford to hop on Priceline and have William Shatner shuttle you away to Aruba, perhaps try to replicate the idea-nurturing aspects of vacationing in your everyday life. It’s not flying in an airplane that fosters new ideas, it’s allowing yourself the freedom to think clearly and be creative. Maybe try taking a day off work and pursue some new experiences in the place you live. Perhaps the next great startup idea will be thought up on staycation.

Keep reading at Forbes

Photo credit: Vadim Georgiev / Shutterstock
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