A story’s come to you in a flash of brilliance. Or maybe it was some really epic blog posts. You may’ve done a little mental note taking on your drive in, or while waiting in line at the post office. However, when the day to day stuff started screaming louder than your thoughts, the ideas just receded to the back of your brain, rarely, if ever to be seen again. Bye bye, ideas!
No matter! (She said with a cheerful yawn.) Here are five AWESOME reasons you should just let them go. You’ve got enough on your plate, right?
They’re easy to forget.
“I always have such good ideas, but I can never remember them.” This is an easy one to fix. Keep a little notebook handy. It doesn’t have to be a big cumbersome thing. Before I had a phone with such bells and whistles, I carried a little journal dubbed my Impulsive Ideas Book, so when the inspiration struck, I could jot things down in rough form.
Nowadays I use the notepad on my phone or the audio recorder if I’m on the move. Sometimes I set an alarm to remind myself to revisit a brainwave that caught me at an “inconvenient” time. You could also leave yourself a voice-mail message or send yourself an email.
So go ahead. In this instance, forget your ideas. You know they’re somewhere safe and accessible when you need them.
They can be exactly as grand and amazing as you envision.
This is the perfectionist’s reason. Afraid of the unknown. It’s full of “What ifs” that keep you secure in the knowledge that you’ll never have to answer any of these questions: What if it doesn’t work? What if it doesn’t look, sound or feel the way I want?
Well, so what if it doesn’t? Does that mean you’re a failure? Of course not! As a matter of fact,
The only real failure in life is the failure to try. – Anonymous
Besides . . . what if it ends up being better than you thought it would be?
No one will judge, criticize or reject you.
We worry about what others will say about our ideas or about us and we’re not sure we could take it if their comments or views were negative. It’s a common fear.
So in order to protect ourselves, we stick to the status quo. We dare not rock the boat. Our fragile egos are then more important than living a life of fulfillment and purpose, more important than our creative ideas that will inspire, entertain, educate or improve the lives of others.
Really? If that’s the case, some serious soul-searching is in order. Take some time to explore your values. I have no doubt you’ll find that what you decide is truly meaningful to you will far outweigh any criticism you were afraid you would encounter.
You don’t have to put out any extra effort.
This is a lazy, and dare I say, selfish excuse. Am I being harsh? Good. Sometimes we need a reality check to get moving. This reason belongs to the person who doesn’t want to get out of his or her comfort zone. There is no schedule adjusting or extra exertion for you. No, siree!
Rather than be who you were created to be, you are content to keep to your agenda of morning news, followed by soaps, followed by game shows, followed by . . .
Or you allow the daily grind of office or home life keep you stagnated in the same routine, day in and day out, while promising yourself that “some day” you’ll do what it takes to turn your ideas into reality.
But “some day” never comes unbidden, does it? It’s up to us to create the time, space and energy needed. Meanwhile someone out there is waiting for those words you’re holding back.
You just don’t “feel like it.”
How often do we wait to feel like doing something before we act on it? Take laundry, for example. I never feel like doing laundry. I don’t wake up and think, “Wow, I really feel like doing a good four loads of laundry today. That’ll really get my day off to a great start.” No, I do laundry when I have no other choice. 😉 (I don’t even want to do it then, but I do it anyway!)
I’m sure you can think of countless examples of things you “do anyway,” regardless of your feelings. Your emotional state doesn’t always determine your ability to take action, right? Don’t give in to this resistance. This sneaky form of procrastination. If you don’t feel like doing something about your ideas today, will you ever?
Ask yourself, if not today, when? And then answer yourself. It’s likely you won’t feel like doing something about your ideas then either, so how long will you let something as fickle as a feeling stop you? You know you were made for more than this.
Will today be the day you stop giving excuses power over you? The day you choose to create and share your words with the world? I do hope so. And I’d love to hear from you about this – leave a comment at the bottom!
