I’m not sure which makes my skin crawl more. Hearing, “I have an idea.” Or hearing, “Just come up with a couple ideas.”
I tell myself, “Ideas are fun!” And I wish I believed it. But in reality, daydreaming they’ve been completed is what’s fun.
Daydreaming the Big Idea is a Whopping Success and all of your (vague) dreams have come true is what’s fun. So deep down I think the cheerleader yelling “I! D! E! A! Goooo idea!” is off her rocker.
Someone says, “I have an idea,” and they might as well have said to me, “Want to see this pus-filled sore on my foot?” I want to disengage. Say, “Good luck with that” to the idea worshipper.
And here’s why.
Ideas take work. Shared ideas are like a ringing phone. They demand attention, energy, effort. Ideas, especially at work, mean there will now be Stuff To Do.
They don’t just pop their way to completion with the same nonchalance as they just popped into someone’s mind.
Ideas are little energy attractors that grow and become big energy attractors. One “cool” idea will have dozens of steps and side bars and peaks (maybe one or two) and valleys (like, lots of valleys). With very rocky plateaus.
No idea is ever easy.
OK, that’s pesky all or nothing thinking which is unhealthy and unhelpful. I’ll modify my statement.
90% of all ideas are never easy.
This is probably a very Only or Firstborn way of thinking. Firstborns are more about getting things done. They say Lastborns are the idea ones and in my experience that’s often true.
Up there with “I have an idea” is the unclear admonition to Come Up With Some Ideas.
Again, ideas take work to implement. So really you’ve just been told to come up with six or seven dozen more tasks to add to your billowing to-do list.
Plus, take time away from your list to flesh out your ideas and massage them into pithy pitches that others can instantaneously envision all glittery and sparkling as soon as you speak them aloud.
Because you can’t sit down in a meeting, channel your inner Tarzan, and say, “Me go. Idea be. You successful,” and expect your team to break into standing ovation and wolf whistles at your creative brilliance.
Then there’s brainstorming. Like a big bowling party using your mind? No, like literally a bunch of loud cracks and booms taking place between your ears.
Who wants a storm in their brain?
Or to put their brain with other brains and make wild suggestions in rabid excitement while everyone else makes equally wild suggestions?
That’ll create whole hurricanes and tidal waves of to-do lists!
Ever seen a Tornado in a Bottle? You could make a model of the forces of nature that fit inside a handheld bottle. That’s how I prefer my brainstorming. Or the better worded “idea generation.” Quiet, solitary, contained.
Sure, I’ll still be creating action items, but at least they have a chance of being achievable, and I can remove anything too complex from my final list.
I don’t feel this way every single day. And not even about every single idea. But I’ve gone long stretches where, for once, I’d like to actually complete all the ideas that have landed in my lap through storms and flashes and other people’s needs. Or vague hopes and wishes.
Yes, I know, just because other people vaguely hope and wish for something doesn’t make it my responsibility to give it to them. That’s a life lesson I return to time and again. A mindset I’m trying to change.
On The Creative Penn Podcast, Joanna Penn interviewed author and small business expert Tara McMullin and they discussed this issue of mindset. Tara said that asking different questions about an issue can help you change your mindset.
One question especially, she said, can help you use your problem solving skills (and Firstborns have strong problem solving skills) to see the issue in a different way.
Tara suggested asking, “What would it look like if . . . ?” And you put the thing you’re trying to solve in the blank.
Then your brain will take down the obstacle blocking you and move towards the thing you’re hoping to accomplish.
Okay, I’ll try it.
What would it look like if . . . I saw ideas as a basket full of puppies? (Stop, you’re being silly.)
What would it look like if . . . coming up with ideas didn’t send me running to hide in the ladies room?
What would it look like if . . . I didn’t feel burdened and smothered by the weight of all the ideas exploding around me?
What would it look like if . . . someone else did the action items that resulted from the brainstorming?
And I could write about it.
She may have something there after all.
To-do list by StockSnap from Pixabay/filtered from original
Hiker by Free-Photos from Pixabay/filtered from original
Nature by Johannes Plenio from Pixabay/filtered from original
Clouds by Alois Wonaschütz from Pixabay/filtered from original
Puppy by mac231 from Pixabay/filtered from original