The Tale Of The Lost Idea
I want you to reflect for a second…
Just a quick second, I promise – there are no 10-minute visualization exercises or journal prompts coming your way.
I want you to reflect back on how many times in the last 6 months, hell 3 weeks, that you’ve had an idea, thought of something you’d LOVE to create and then gotten distracted by what other people are doing.
[I’ll wait.]
You’re in the shower, you’re walking your dog, you’re cooking dinner, then boom out of nowhere inspiration rolls in with an idea that stops you in your tracks. Maybe it’s for a piece of content you’d love to write. Maybe it’s for a new offer you’d like to bring to life. Maybe it’s for a new business you’d like to start.
You’re lit up, fired up as you imagine bringing it to life.
You take a quick note and then promise yourself you’re going to come back to it the moment you’re back at your desk. You’ll brainstorm the details, reach out to your team, plot the outline…
“But, let me just do a quick Instagram scroll first.” We all know how things roll out from here.
All of a sudden you’re feeling just a little less lit up about your idea.
So and so is so creative.
So and so is so innovative.
So and so says you should have better systems in place before you put new offers out.
And just like that your idea bubble bursts.
You tell yourself you’ll come back to it, but we both know the truth. There it will remain in the idea graveyard of your phone notes app.
This, my friend, is a far too familiar tale. A sad tale, really.
In the words of Marie Curie, “Be less curious about people and more curious about ideas.”
We spend so much time hoping to stumble upon the perfect idea, a source of inspiration for our work, THE THING that will align our business stars. But then, when we do, we let the inspiration of others make us feel small.
You should be your greatest source of inspiration my friend.
Your ideas deserve to be honoured, expanded on, created. And that starts with you deciding that what you have to share is worthy of being explored.
It is.
>> Start by spending 25 minutes a day exploring ONE idea.
Maybe it amounts to nothing, that’s fine. Most of them probably won’t turn out to be revolutionary to your life. But, maybe, just maybe it’ll turn out to be revolutionary to someone else’s.
Make a habit of prioritizing your own innovation & creativity, instead of focusing on someone else’s!
“You can sit here and write or you can sit here and do nothing. But you can’t do anything else.” – Neil Gaiman
And, if you must listen to others, use their inspiration to inspire your own.
When I listen to people talk about the birth of their ideas, it sincerely fills me with a sense of magic (not envy.)
Whether it’s the birth of a book, the start of a business, the seed of a new adventure…I’m taken away by the simplicity of it. How magic can be found in a single moment.
You just need to be brave enough to welcome it. To nurture it. To make it your own.
Listen to your favourite authors talk about the moment of curiosity that inspired the best-selling novels that changed their lives – the tiny moments that grew to fill whole worlds.
Read about business owners who built their empires off of an idea that started out as a note on a napkin.
The more you surround yourself with these stories, the quicker you’ll realize that killer ideas do not simply appear in the form of a perfect 300-page novel or million-dollar business.
…they require space to grow…
They are percolated on and avoided.
They’re jotted down in notebooks and left to live for weeks, months, years.
Until they’re slowly cajoled out of their hiding place and prompted to expand.
They require a commitment to become their truest form. They require that you devote energy to loving, caring, and building them into what they want to be.
You are an idea maker. A creator.
So, keep letting the magic of your ideas show up around you. Collect them. Share them.
But, above all else, CREATE THEM. Build them out to what they desire to be.
Because that’s where the real magic is gonna be found.
