When faced with a tough decision, I often ask myself What would _________ do in this situation? Or better yet I pull together a group or four or five really smart people in my head to form an internal mastermind group.
I first read about the internal mastermind concept in Napoleon Hill’s classic Think and Grow Rich. To form an internal mastermind group you gather in your head those individuals you respect and admire whom you believe could help you address your current situation. The cool thing is that because this is all happening in your head the people can be living or dead. As a matter of fact you need never have met the person if you feel you know enough about their character and intellect.
If you could get inside my head during an internal mastermind group meeting you might find these people: My Dad, Thomas Jefferson, Napoleon Hill, Dean Eggert, Mark Geeves, Joe Sorge and even Chris Brogan. This is by no means an exhaustive list. I pull in those great minds I need to solve the problem of the moment. I’m here to tell you this works.
This blog has become my sandbox to test and hone my skills with all kinds of ideas. One has been the mastermind group. I have made many changes to the appearance and content on this site over the last four months or so. While I have directly asked many people their opinions on some of these changes, more changes have occurred with me asking in my head, a table full of people like those in the above list, for the answers.
For me the best time to assemble the group and ask the questions is as I drift off to sleep at night. First, I sleep like a baby and then I wake with a head full of ideas. I jump out of bed find my Moleskine notebook and start writing until I’m out of ideas and thoughts. You can go ahead and think my brain created those ideas…I don’t agree. I’ll leave it at that.
So, have you ever made use of an internal mastermind group? Was it successful for you? If you haven’t tried has this post encouraged you to give it a shot? Let me know!