Daniel Decker

This is a post for dreamers, for idea-makers, and for anyone who has something they want to create, pursue or do. I wrote about it recently in the 5 Ways to Get More Done post but want to expand on it a little more.

You know what kills ideas?

Having too many of them and trying to chase them all at once.

Ideas themselves aren’t bad but trying to implement too many of them at the same time can be (I know, I used to do it myself). It’s like trying to be all things to all people, which will cause you to be nothing to no one.

If you have a dream or an idea you want to pursue, you must focus in on it. That’s the only way you’ll give it enough attention to make it happen.

That doesn’t mean you can’t do more than one thing at a time, it just means you need to be extremely careful not too try and do too many things at once without the proper plan, infrastructure or team. If you architect ideas (like this guy or this one) then you need to be disciplined enough to bring in others to help execute or the ideas won’t happen.

Trying to do it all yourself is the fastest way to paralysis and failure.

Either way, when you adopt an idea-focused perspective you must also get comfortable with saying NO. You can’t say YES to your dream without saying NO to something else… and that’s hard. There are a lot of really good opportunities out there but are they great and do they help you get your idea done?

Good distracts from great and the sooner you come to grips with that, the closer you’ll be to making your idea happen.

If you want to get your ___ done and are serious about it then you must develop an idea-filter which will serve as a guardrail that you can run every choice through in order to help you stay on course.

That happens when you start asking yourself questions like:
1. Does this new or other opportunity match the direction of my primary idea?
2. Will it help me reach my goal?
3. Will it be a distraction?
4. Do I have the support system to pursue it?

Everything must run through the idea-filter and you must choose. Great things are made by hard choices. It’s just how it is. If it were easy then everyone would do it but you’re not everyone are you? You can bring that idea to maturity but you must focus in on it and either pursue it with a passion or let it go.

Questions: How do you deal with ideas? Does having too many of them get in the way? What have you learned that helps you implement your ideas?

Related posts:

1. Creative Thinking, Idea Management, and Solution Seekers
2. How to Deal with the Naysayers, Debbie Downers, and Dream Snatchers
3. Top Posts for February – Awful Truths About Book Publishing, Kill an Idea, Seth Godin, Facebook and More