Ideas are everywhere. They’re in our head, a notebook, a spark of inspiration from an observation.
Think of an idea as a seed on the ground.
There are thousands of those scattered around. We walk over them as quickly as they appear in front of us and they disappear in a flash behind us.
Not all seeds get fertilized. In fact, very few do.
Without the right conditions, they have no chance of turning into a majestic Redwood.
Execution is vital to its growth.
The same goes for our ideas.
There’s no downside to going for it.
Best case, you get the thing you went for. Worst case, it was a complete and utter train wreck.
But here’s the thing, the worst case is forgotten much quicker than the regret of not doing it.
Regret lingers. It stews. It’s like the annoying neighbor that overstays their welcome.
Putting it out into the universe is the only way to go. We can make up stories in our heads but we don’t know what happens until it happens.
We have to act and let the universe work as it does.
No promises about the result that comes out of it.
But even failing spectacularly is much better than the alternative.
Often times it’s not a big change that has to be made.
It’s a tweak.
A slight pivot.
A minor movement forward.
One more turn of the wrench.
Progress happens through tiny intentional iterations.
Make a small change and see how that helps.
Then maybe another after that.
Before long we’re on a new path forward.
Progress, not perfection.
That minor tweak in thinking is substantial.
Once we try it we can’t untry it
Once we see it we can’t unsee it
Once we meet them we can’t unmeet them
Instead of regretting not taking the chance, we can appreciate our attempt.
We can never predict the outcome.
We can only connect the dots looking back and see if it worked out.
So, I urge you to try.
In the end, it might be painful but the lessons learned become incalculable.
Take a seed out of any food we are eating and place it on the table.
Don’t do anything to it and let it sit there for a few weeks.
Do you know what happens?
Almost nothing.
Do you know why? Because there needs to be some action to create change. There needs to be some focused effort for growth to take place.
That seed is a metaphor for every idea we have in our heads that we want to pursue but we don’t.
It just sits there. It toys with us. It slowly dies each day.
But what happens when put the tiniest amount of effort toward that seed?
If it’s laid inside a wet paper towel it’ll start to sprout.
If it’s buried in some soil it could plant some roots.
If it’s placed outside in the sun it might start flowering soon enough…Just like our ideas.
They just need a little love. A little attention. A little light to be shined upon them.
And then, in time, they can become something we never could quite fathom.
They blossom into the most beautiful thing we’ve ever seen.
It’s real. It’s spectacular. It’s ours.
We’ve created it and it should give us the courage to create again.
One small step at a time is all it takes.
But we have to take the first step otherwise we might be wondering if this thing will ever turn into anything special.
It will.
We just have to give it a chance to grow.
We must be thoughtful about where we want to go as that will help plot the next few steps down the path. The direction is much more important than the speed at which we arrive.
If we don’t know where we are going, it’ll be hard to pack our bags and be prepared properly for the journey ahead. Although drifting slightly of course can be corrected, the further we go down the wrong path the harder it’ll be to turn back.
Stay focused on our desired outcome and where we truly want our life to go.
Then, start moving in that direction.
We hear slogans like “Taste the feeling”, “That’s what I like”, “They’re Gr-r-reat” and hundreds of other slogans in marketing ads across the world.
But, we can all agree, none of these products as well as a host of others are very healthy. So while their slogans may be clever and get us thinking and feeling a certain way, the results paint a vastly different picture. What we get by consuming these products is far different than the message we receive.
We have to keep this in mind as we build new relationships. In early encounters, people may talk a certain way and present a picture of themselves that differs from what our intuition is telling us. Dig deeper and look at the actions versus the words coming out of their mouth.
How are they treating us and others? Does their story add up or are there holes? Are they playing games?
We all try to make a memorable first impression but some people can be deceptive in their approach. Be sure to look behind the curtain and not always take the words someone is saying as fact. They may be hiding something.
They may be selling us a brand that is quite different than the product we end up receiving.
Blocking out the noise and going to do what we feel compelled to do sounds easier said than done at times. We often hear the opinions of others and let that in some way give us a false start and second guess the endeavors or ideas we want to go tackle.
Think about all the times people told us “You can’t do that” and then we proved them right. In those moments, trusting what we believe is best for us might have been the better decision.
How come we took their thoughts as gospel and neglected our own?
You rarely see this with kids and I think we should all strive to be like nine-year-olds again where we listen to what other people are telling us we should do and then we go do the thing we want to do instead.
We are going to gain some valuable lessons and experiences anyways, they might as well be on our own terms.
