Alright so you've let go of all the negative beliefs you used to have about your ability to come up with great business ideas. Now what? How do you actually start having more of them?

Well, spotting opportunities and coming up with great ideas is actually just another habit, and like any habit you want to develop, you simply need to practise it. In fact I know many people, myself included, whose problem is not a lack of ideas, but too many ideas! Because once you get good at it and you get accustomed to spotting the gaps and the holes and opportunities, ideas start springing up all the time. (At this stage the problem becomes not so much "what to do" but "what not to do".)

What we're really trying to do here is change from a "scarcity of ideas" mentality ("There aren't enough good ideas to go around") to an "abundance of ideas" mentality ("There are more great ideas waiting for me than I can deal with").

Thus it shouldn't come as too much of a suprise that now that you've let go of all the negative beliefs that were stopping you coming up with ideas, the next thing you need to do is replace them with positive beliefs that enable and encourage you to have more ideas.

Sound a bit too easy? While this seemingly simple solution is a fundamental step towards entrepreneurial creativity, it is not at all easy if you've been brought up like most people have, brainwashed into thinking that starting and building a multimillion dollar business is "not what people in our family do".

However it is essential that you persevere with this as this is one of the key things that differentiates those who go on to build successful businesses and business empires, from those who would like to but don't. They simply believe that they can. (Even if they're not sure how!)

So the first thing to practise is this: Start telling yourself over and over, every chance you get, that  "Opportunities  are everywhere and I know where to find them" Write it down, say it out loud, meditate on it - do whatever you need to do to program this thought into your subconcious. Just like you did when you programed your timetables into your subconscious at school, and just like you did when you learned how to change gears without even noticing when you were learning to drive - through constant repitition.

And do the same for this one: "I have amazing ideas all the time".

These are two affirmations that I used after being inspired by an awesome book called "Money, Success & You" by mind power and wealth expert, John Kehoe. It very clearly and concisely outlines the relationship between what goes on in your head and what turns up in your real life. It was after reading this book that I finally got started on my first business and I highly recommend you read it as one of the first steps on your path to entrepreneurship.

Now of course you can come up with whatever affirmations you want - it's your future after all. The main thing is that you replace the beliefs that were holding you back (such as "All the good ideas have already been taken" and "If it's such a good idea why hasn't someone else already done it?") with at least one or two beliefs that will actually help your subconscious mind come up with great ideas. (If you have any suggestions on some positive beliefs about ideas please let me know and I'll share them with our readers!)

How will you know when you've achieved this? One, just ask yourself if you truly believe you're capable of having amazing business ideas all the time. If the little voice inside your head says "yes" - you've done it. If not you've got some more work to do.

Two, you'll know when you've succeeded in adopting this "abundance of ideas" mentality because you'll find you'll actually start coming up with ideas on a fairly regular basis - probably not fully fledged mult-million dollar business ideas everytime but ideas all the same, even if it's just ideas on how something could be done better or ways to solve annoying problems. The important thing is that you are now starting to exercise your entrepreneurial muscle.

How long will all this take? It depends on how much you want it.

Next... Ideas Part 2 continues: You've replaced the beliefs getting in the way of your ideas, with beliefs that will help you have more of them - but the world is full of great ideas - so where do the best ideas come from?

Richard Liew started his first business at the age of 23 and founded the Rev Sales Network, a personal and professional development network for salespeople when he was 27. Along the way he has helped develop sales strategies for several startup’s, helped extreme sport ‘le parkour’ (freerunning) find it’s feet in NZ, and is a regular newspaper and magazine contributor on the topics of sales and marketing. He is currently working on a recruitment related internet business. Email Richard here.