This was meant to be a short inspirational post. Then I ran out of characters and wrote an article.

I get to work with a lot of amazing people in many types of manufacturing industries that are solving so many problems and creating new and innovative products everyday.

It is often very easy to get wrapped up in your thoughts and the problem you are trying to solve that we forget to take a second for ourselves or to take in and in doing so you may have skipped right over a thought that could have lead to your solution!

I exceeded the amount of characters for a post on LinkedIn and it was not my intention to write an article but here we are.

Here is an example that just happened to me yesterday. I was sitting on our dock at the office working. I kept seeing these floating seeds, most of the time I get annoyed by them because they land in my yard or make you sneeze.

This one was different it looked like an umbrella and it was pretty large. I laughed because my thought was "I am pretty sure that tree didn't copy OUR idea or design of an umbrella.

Then I went back to work and probably would have never thought about it again.

I went outside for lunch to read and I saw more. This time they were coming over the top of our building. I explored this thought a little more (thanks to the book I am reading).

That "umbrella" came from a tree that is rooted in the ground somewhere in a business park. This tree had a "problem".... How was it supposed to literally disperse its seed without being able to move. I cannot say with 1000% certainty but I am pretty sure the tree didn't complain about it's life situation or feel bad for itself.

It came up with a solution (this umbrella like contraption to carry its seed using the wind). What blows my mind- IT COULDN'T GO TO GOOGLE TO RESEARCH OR THE STORE TO GET MATERIALS OR USE A COMPUTER TO COME UP WITH A DESIGN. (Before anyone says anything, I was and am 100% sober).

My point is I am sure some engineer or anyone really has a problem they are trying to solve. Maybe take a second to really see things and the inspiration might float in front of you. It sounds kind of cheesy and I am sure it has some grammar mistakes but I am going to leave it and hit post because I never do that either.