Here's my advice: Go ahead and be whacky. Get into a crazy frame of mind and ask what's funny about what you're doing.

Most brilliance arises from ordinary people working together in extraordinary ways.

Most people think of success and failure as opposites, but they both are products of the same process.

Take advantage of the ambiguity in the world. Look at something and think what else it might be.

What excuses stand in your way? How can you eliminate them?

Open your mind up to things that have no connection with the problem you're trying to solve: subscribe to an unusual magazine; spend a morning at an elementary school; go to work two hours early; test drive an exotic car; attend a city council meeting; ...try an Indonesian recipe.

It's difficult to get your creative juices flowing if you're always being practical, following rules, afraid to make mistakes, not looking into outside areas, or under the influence of any of the other mental locks.