Flirting with a good idea

March 20, 2017

Greetings from the impatient idea,

Some time ago I wrote down a sentence, a part of an idea that I thought was worth writing about.  Once in a while I will come across this and think about it, scribble a few words around it, erase something, peck at it.  This morning I looked at it and realized I have sanded and refined and critiqued and waited the beauty right out of it.

The problem with flirting with a good idea is that if your timing is off, if you play too hard to get, it will slip away.  You will be looking at the place it once was and feel like you have been bruised inside your chest. 

It’s easy to use writing as an example, but you can come up with a lot more. Big ideas like starting a new business on that app you think is genius, or small ideas like calling that person you always meant to know better.   Maybe figuring out how to start that women’s shelter, or a dog walking service for seniors, or going on your dream vacation, or learning to macramé.  Inviting a bunch of people over to dinner because you can’t believe how good roasted Brussels sprouts are.

All good ideas just waiting for you to take it to the next level.  For most of us, procrastination is the end of that relationship.  We will get to it, but not today.  Today is for binge watching the last season of ‘Path of Least Resistance’. 

We also hear the critic’s voice.  The phalanx of people we pass through every day who only see failure or risk or label dreams frivolity.  We fear failure of course, but private failure is one thing and suffering the critic is another.  And sometimes this truth: we have met the critic and it is us.

We wait on one idea in the hope that another, better one will come along.  We want the conditions to be perfect, for the stars to align in that mystical path toward fulfillment.  We want our soulmate idea to sweep us off our feet.

But most often the idea fades because of the rest of our day washes it out.  Over time what once inspired us becomes so diluted by the mundane and the ordinary that we lose the flame that first attracted us.  A year goes by and you go out to your workbench and see the three pieces of wood there, and you can’t even imagine it becoming a table.  What were you thinking?

Sometimes what will flourish in you appears for only a second and is gone.  And you find yourself shaking off the crazy idea and getting back to what has to be done.  Which you probably have already done.

Of course we can’t chase after every butterfly that comes into our heads.  It does require some discrimination and maturity to focus on the ideas that fit with our skills and abilities and resources and time.  After all we have to be sensible.  If you think you recognize these words, it’s probably because you’ve thought them while you were pouring sand in the carburetor of your last great idea.

What is the solution?  Give in to the instinct and see where it leads.  When the idea comes to you, the irrepressible thought that makes your heart race, don’t flirt with it; embrace it.  Pull it into you and feel the passion and then commit to it.  Challenge yourself to work with it until it blossoms.  Make lots of messy mistakes.  Be fearless in your failure. Don’t let go of the idea until it says something like ‘..it’s not you, it’s me.’  Or it grows into what you knew it would.

Some ideas change the world.  Some start a good sentence.  At the heart of these are all of what makes the human experience worthwhile.  Love, hope, joy, challenge, courage, growth, and often the immense satisfaction that comes in creating something beautiful from your own inspiration and perseverance. 

Hope this finds you seizing the idea,

David

Copyright © 2017 David Smith