Ideas that ask us to travel with them to a deeper place

November 05, 2017 2:19 PM

There’s nothing more galvanizing than
the internal pressure of turning our brain over to a magnificent obsession.

There’s nothing more satisfying than the external progress of turning the idea
that fascinates us into something real in the world.

But somewhere along the
journey from idea to execution, our ambition picks a fight with our patience.

We just want it to be in the world now.
We unreasonably insist that we must eat everything on the plate.

And so, we
start killing ourselves trying to
resolve every open issue before the closing bell. Because the story we tell
ourselves is, look, if I can’t start, finish and ship this entire project, by tomorrow,
then I’m a failure.

It’s classic all or nothing thinking. Like the petulant
child who loses the board game and suddenly decides that he doesn’t feel like
playing anymore.

I’m taking my toys and going home.

Veruca’s song epitomizes
our impatient mindset most eloquently:

I want the world, I want the whole
world, I want to lock it all up in my pocket, it’s my bar of chocolate, give it
to me now!

But that’s not living in a world of reality. True acts of creativity
involve holding rich ideas over time, nurturing them and seeing those ideas to
fruition. Real work that we do in the service of our dreams requires patience,
endurance and staying power.

Because projects that truly matter ask us to
travel with them to a deeper place, for real stretches of time, rather than
taking ten minutes to impulsively splatter paint across a canvas and proclaim
to the world, tada!

Without that
sense of patience, your joy will always be a few miles down the road.

And so,
if there’s an exciting new project that you’re energized by, but you’re
hesitant to start because you know it won’t be completed by the end of the
week, give yourself permission to start small.

Carve out time every day or
every week to chip away at your idea, one chunk at a time. Keep your head down.
Don’t worry about where the project is headed. Just enjoy the process. Allow
the power of compound interest to take hold.

And a few months or a few years
down the road, pick you head up and see how far you’ve come. Then you can
transition from an emergent creative strategy to a more deliberate one.

Remember, it’s a long arc game.

Sometimes we have to take baby steps to allow
our more mature expressions to come into being.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…

Which of your ideas is asking you to travel with it to a deeper place?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…

For the list called, “99 Ways to Think Like an Entrepreneur, Even If You Aren’t One,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com