Idea to Action

There’s a great abyss between Idea and Action where so many of us, for a variety of reasons, halt. Sometimes an idea is simply an idea and never meant  go any further, but more often than not an idea stagnates in that vast expanse, never going from idea to action.

Why?

Pause for a minute and take inventory.

How many wonderful ideas, wishes, hopes, etc. have you had that have lingered upon your mental shelves? Maybe some have even been sketched out as grand plans on paper, or left you too excited to sleep at night. Dreaming up awesome ideas is COOL, right?

But, then what?

How many have actually moved into action? Forget about full follow-though, I’m talking simply Step One.

DANG <— Me, looking at my dusty shelves of ideas.

Inventory complete?

Why have these things been left undone? Is it lack of resources? Or fear?

Bad Ideas

The following is an excerpt from Seth Godin’s latest book, The Practice.

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You Don’t Need More Good Ideas, You Need More Bad Ideas

All the good ideas must be taken by now.

Back when Dr. Seuss was writing, there were only tens of thousands of books for kids. Now, there are millions to choose from. The same is true for movie script ideas, summer camp special days, niches for surgeons, original landscaping ideas . . .

It’s tempting to imagine that there’s no possible way to make a contribution. The muse has passed you by and there’s nothing left to create.

Instead of saying, “I’m stuck, I can’t come up with anything good,” it’s far more effective to say, “I’ve finished this, and now I need to make it better.” Or possibly, “I finished this, and it can’t be made better, but now I’m ready to do the new thing, because look at all I’ve learned.”

“This is the story of every human innovation.

This is the story of every good idea, every new project, every pop song, every novel.

There was a bad idea.

And then there was a better one.

If you want to complain that you don’t have any good ideas, please show me all your bad ideas first.

Befriending your bad ideas is a useful way forward. They’re not your enemy. They are essential steps on the path to better.”

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Fear?

Are you afraid that your ideas are no good? Is that what is holding you back from moving them from idea to action? GOOD! Make more of them! Within all of those bad ideas something good will arise.

Idea to Action

Yesterday Mason and I made the following image together. The Lego build is his alone, but the photograph we made together. We both started with nothing but ideas. Lots of terrible ideas, funny ideas, weird ideas – that all eventually led to the abyss of “now what” that finally led to action. It took us over a week to go from Idea to Action. We had days of Stuck, days of I Don’t Want To, days of Fear, and finally Let’s Get Over Ourselves, Try, And See What Happens.

With every tool and resource available to ourselves, we made this. And we learned a lot that we will apply to future collaborations.

Resources

Seriously, is there any lack of educational resources and/or likeminded community these days? With a few clicks online we can access anything and anyone!

Mason showed me this one yesterday – Skillshare. Holy smokes, I could get lost in all of the fun things to learn and move more things from Idea to Action.

If you want to garden, you have to bend down and touch the soil. Gardening is a practice. Not an idea.

– Thich Nhat Hanh

We have so many resources available to us, there’s no reason to ever let an idea sit. Ever. Again.

Stop wandering about! You aren’t likely to read your own notebooks, or ancient histories, or the anthologies you’ve collected to enjoy in your old age. Get busy with life’s purpose, toss aside empty hopes, get active in your own rescue—if you care for yourself at all—and do it while you can.

– MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 3.14

Idea to Action Challenge

Get brave today. Pick an idea that is sitting there gathering dust and START. Do some research and jump in with it.

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