Snowmakers are melodically humming and season passes are being aggresively pushed ahead of imminent price increases. Up-to-the-minute updates are a priority as opening date announcements are eagerly awaited by the masses of impatient skiers.

For most, time is in short supply.

Yet, time could be the secret to the ideas that will drive your success this season.

THE SHORT STORY
Last week, my wife and I snuck out for one final camping trip of the year to Red Canyon in north-eastern Utah. A huge slice through the earth, thousands of feet deep, lined with brilliantly red rocks and half-filled with Flaming Gorge Reservoir.

Along the rim are a half dozen viewpoints, normally popular but wonderfully quiet during the cool October mornings we spent there last week. Instantly, my body relaxed and for the first time in a long time, my mind was honestly clear. Likewise, my outlook on life and work became sharper.

The picture at the top of this post is one I had my wife snap of me overlooking the canyon, just so I could better remember the feeling as a reminder to get it back more often.

WHAT I REALIZED/REMEMBERED
As I pondered, I realized that a few of my very best ideas came in similar circumstances.

My most successful business idea? Happened while quietly working in the yard for 10 hours on a cool fall afternoon overlooking a mountain valley in full, fall glory.

This idea for this blog? A 2 hour drive at night with the radio off.

Decision to marry my wife? On an 80 mile solo bike ride.

The list goes on, but you’re getting bored. Let me wrap this up.

THE SECRET
The moral of this post is this: don’t forget to take time to just think. Turn off the blackberry, close the laptop, get out of the office, find a spot with a nice view, and just think.

Clear out all the junk that our brain gathers and let the ideas come. I once heard that marketing is the business of good ideas, however true it is, for most folks, our best ideas don’t come when we’re under the gun of deadlines, stress, and to-do lists.

Take time to think. Alone. With no constraints.

I’d be interested to know, when and where have your best ideas come?

About Gregg & SlopeFillers
I've had more first-time visitors lately, so adding a quick "about" section. I started SlopeFillers in 2010 with the simple goal of sharing great resort marketing strategies. Today I run marketing for resort ecommerce and CRM provider Inntopia, my home mountain is the lovely Nordic Valley, and my favorite marketing campaign remains the Ski Utah TV show that sold me on skiing as a kid in the 90s.