I had a very interesting weekend with my nephew and nieces going to the beach and then staying at home with my wife and myself for 4 days.

It was a very interesting challenge... on one side no much time to be on your own... on the other side, a lot of time to enjoy the ways they play and think.

There was a time that I specially enjoyed when talking to one of my nieces in which I could remember that technique of asking questions to children.  She is very clever but at the same time is very young, around 12, so then I could appreciate the simplicity (and clarity) with which her arguments or ideas were supported.

Observing the way the children talk and play is another very useful source of creativity and inspiration.  It is not only about the ideas, about the content, but about the way they are expressed.

We should pay attention to other people´s ideas and suggestions regardless where they are coming from: The ideas can be suggested by children, people with a low socio economic level, people without education, people who cannot express themselves properly or even to think clearly.

In fact, we should celebrate and encourage this diversity of ideas, this mix of different ways of looking at things.  That was one of my motives to come to live in London, to learn from diversity of ideas produced by a mix of cultures.

Going to the beach, changing environments, changing routines, doing different things, using different time tables, meeting different people, doing different activities are ways to embrace new ideas that can be linked to current problems to generate new solutions, or at least to change the old ones.

Have a break.

Last Wednesday I attended an event in Emmanuel Center Auditorium in Westminster.  Claudia Aluza surprised us since the beginning making us not only to laugh but also to dance, so that we could receive her husband, James Altucher.

It was a very entertaining event in which James Altucher shared interesting things about his life and his experiences (ie how he made a lot of money, lost it and made it again).  Among his ideas, the one that I liked the most was the suggestion to "Write 10 ideas every day".  I am already used to carry a pad or a notebook where I write my thoughts, but that commitment of writing 10 ideas every day seems to me a life changing habit.  These ideas could be about any topic.  James prevented us not to write something like a "to do checklist" but to write about any topic.  These ideas could be thinking about helping somebody or helping a business or helping yourself.  Ideas about physical health, emotional health, Spiritual health, mental health...

Both James and Claudia, have written respectively some books about these topics (each of them 99p on ebook format): "Choose yourself" and "Become an Idea Machine: Because Ideas are the currency of the 21st Century". 

There was a very interesting session of questions and answers.  James mentioned interesting things such as "Send ideas to people without expecting things back" and the benefits that this has brought to him with specific examples.  Listening to James is to think about ideas that you might have listened or thought before, but refreshed by his own experiences and thoughts making them more engaging and stimulating.

"Have I helped somebody today?"  "Find a job who link your successes to the success of the company you are working for" "Have different sources of income".  "Think about 10 ideas to help somebody", "Solve a problem that can help millions of people".

In this entertaining and educational free evening we also received a hard cover book for free titled "Choose yourself: Guide to wealth".  Thank you very much James!!!

Today I was going to the swimming pool in Brixton, but I was told it was "at full capacity", so I went with a friend for a walk around Brixton.  I had read about "Pop Brixton" in the newspaper, but it has been the first time I have seen it.

It was very interesting to see a lot of "containers" decorated and organised in such a way that create a very nice space with many bars, some shops, etc.  

I was wondering if this would be only for summer so I asked in a bar that has the name of the town I was born in, San Sebastian (in basque language, Donostia), www.donostiasocialclub.co.uk (the bar in Pop Brixton) where I was told that initially the project is for at least two years and a half.

It is interesting that in Brixton there is already a wonderful mix of bars and shops in "Brixton Village" (we went to a Colombian bar, where I had a blackberry juice), the market, etc.  even very close to Pop Brixton there is another Spanish restaurant-shop where I ate some time ago a very nice "croqueta".

Another thing that got my attention was how there were still several containers outside the space that was opened to the public and also how they were at the same time building other containers to become bars or shops.  I was surprised for how the flooring was like a wood that has not been treated, like a building in construction, but at the same time I saw that another bar where they were selling fish and chips, was having tables and chairs decorated in that same way.

Different products, different cultures, different ethnicity, but the same creative spirit to create things and to improve them.  Today was a inspirational walk, admiring and enjoying the mix of things.  As they say, ideas can be incubated by the 3B´s: Bed, Bath and Bus (while you are asleep, while you are having a bath or while you are travelling).  Other ways to incubate ideas, to gain inspiration are walking around inspiring places built by people or by nature, washing up dishes, shaving, walking around the library, relaxing in a park, etc.  Not only that, but also enjoying a niece juice, meal or conversation with a friend.