Why your next great idea may not be so great
Edison and the lightbulb. Turing and the computer. Hell, even Colonel Sanders and the chicken recipe. All ideas that turned into great ideas once they were brought into reality. That’s the point.
The great idea that you have just had isn’t a great idea until you do something to bring it into concrete reality.
Mavericks are inherently creative visionary people who want to make a difference. Indeed, how many ideas do you have on a daily and weekly basis. As a Maverick, I am willing to bet that it is a lot.
Now ask yourself how many of those ideas you have actually acted upon. How many of them have you even written down? How many pieces of potentially genius are lost to you and the world?
That idea isn't doing your or anyone else any good
The point is that while it is just an idea in your head, it isn’t doing any good for anyone. You may have come up with a killer idea that could transform someone’s experience, life or circumstances. You may have the next great thing.
However, what seems good in your head may not be quite so good in reality. You might talk about it with friends, colleagues and loved ones. Even with critical minds. They will all tell you how great your idea is and how it totally needs to be done. Easily done…there is no investment at this point…it is just an idea.
No one is going to know really or get invested in it until you do something about it. Reality will soon tell you if your idea is good or not. You might also find out that the form that the idea manifests into changes.
But…until you take those first steps and keep going you will never know. Nor will anyone else…and because it is just in your head, they won’t care either.
So what is getting in your way? Here are some of the things that might be blocking you…
Fear of Failure
Probably the most well known fear of all and the one that all A grade students fear the most. The inner critic and inner perfectionist can stop us in our tracks when turning vision into reality.
Thoughts like we are going to cock it all up. Or, it just isn’t going to work. Or, people are going to ridicule and reject us. Whatever flavour, the self doubt creeps in and we let go of the idea and don’t even take the first step.
Fear of Success
Probably more surprising but equally crippling, the fear of success can also stop us dead.
We may fear the amount of work or investment that is required to make our idea a success. We may fear that we will lose ourselves or that other people will want a piece of us. Or, that other people will become jealous and try to take us down.
The base belief here is that success comes at a high price.
Too many ideas
Sometimes for creative types, the issue is that they simply have more ideas than they can deal with.
Not wanting to let go of any of them because all ideas are precious, they don’t even get started on working up any ideas. Either that, or the sheer number of ideas means that they get overwhelmed and can’t see the wood for the trees.
Too high-level
Some Maverick types are simply very very very very big picture. It can be a challenge getting rubber to the road when you are hovering at 35,000 feet!
As a consequence they may not be able to see the concrete detailed and discrete steps that may be required to take their idea from concept to reality.
No roadmap
Even if the Maverick can get rubber to the road, they may not have the roadmap of how to create reality from vision. This leads them to use trial and error and in the end might just seem too frustrating or too much like hard work for them to push through the pain of mundane reality and make things contrete.
Energised by starting but not by finishing
A very large percentage of creatives and changemakers are energised by new ideas and creativity and so love to get things started.
The act of creation is all about new beginnings and this can spur members of our tribe to continually start things without finishing them. So, all that is left is a trail of half-baked ideas than any material changes.
Addicted to inspiration
A favourite of mine and linked to last one, how many of us only act on our ideas when we feel inspired?
That initial charge after the idea is generated, often through collaboration, is often misinterpreted as the work being done. “Great”, the Maverick thinks, “I have done all of this idea creation and brainstorming. Wow, I feel inspired. That is my work done”.
Unfortunately, it is not. However the perspiration part of the equation isn’t inspiring…and indeed feels like drudgery. So the Maverick either interprets the idea as being irrelevant because they are no longer inspired by it or they go chasing after the next thing that inspires them.
Over to you
Do any of these sound familiar to you? I personally am an Inspiration junkie. Can’t get enough of the stuff. So often I lose steam for certain ideas when I hit the the reality of the hard work it is going to take to bring the idea to fruition.
What ever it is for you though, your job is to make like a Maverick and take the first step, show up and serve. When you do that, they next step is just a bit easier and the one after that is easier still. But, ya gotta take the first step!
Leave a comment and tell us what gets in your way and what steps are you taking TODAY to make your great idea a reality?
Image - Komodor/Flickr