Ideas Excite
A new idea is tantalising.
It explodes into our brain and immediately overtakes all that we are thinking and/or doing.
For the mindful - some might say, disciplined - in our midst, the idea gets jotted down and scheduled in for further contemplation or expansion at a later time. For some of us though, we’re off like the dog who hears the word ‘squirrel’ and it takes a whole lot of energy and determination to get back on track.
Full of ideas, I can find myself landing anywhere along this spectrum. I’ve trained myself to focus when necessary, yet I love nothing more than a juicy distraction.
What I’ve discovered is that it’s good to go with the excitement of an idea, if only for a moment or two. When we allow ourselves to feel the wonder and joy of something new, we can create a strong emotional connection which fuels motivation and persistence to do the work needed to take that idea through to reality.
Some of my best ideas arrive in the early hours of the morning in that half-asleep state. The tension between being distracted from my morning routine and the desire to do a deep dive into the idea is a struggle. Something as simple as recording my thoughts about the idea, or doing a couple of quick google searches and saving the pages to look at later, or a quick sketch of what excites me about the idea is enough to inspire me to the next stage of action.
It’s sad but true that most of our ideas disappear as fast as we can think of them. If we don’t want to lose all of them, an emotional bond can be our ideas’ champion.
I’m curious, how excited do you get by new ideas?