I have LOTS of ideas! I spend about 20 hours a week reading different articles, magazines, websites, blogs. I attend masterminds and classes. I reach out (deliberately) to new people who do things differently than I do and try to understand what makes those things work.
So how many ideas do I implement a week? Not as many as I would like!
I think that I am above the curve but nowhere near where I would like to be – sigh. So many great ideas, so little time. So what should we do to make more use of our good ideas?
- Write them down! I cannot tell you how often I have had a flash of pure brilliance, thought out an entire business and marketing plan, figured out how I was going to spend the gagillions of dollars it would make me AND THEN FORGOTTEN IT ALL! Because it was SO brilliant, I figured that I would remember it. I would be able to hold all of the pieces in my head and then…life happened. The toilet broke, the car needed oil, the dog had to be let out – whatever I had thought about left me. Now don’t get me wrong, I still had the concept, but all the goodies that I had with my intial concept slithered away. Now I am stuck with a GREAT IDEA that I have to think really hard about. It seems less fun. I am trying to recreate rather than innovate.Â
- Prioritize – So now you are writing your great ideas down! YAY! Darn it, you have about 30 and your list keeps getting longer. You are starting to get overwhelmed with the amount of work that these ideas will take. STOP! You cannot do all of your great ideas at once. Someday when you are fabulously wealthy and have an assistant and your assistant has an assistant you will be able to do nothing all day but follow your whims, but right now you will have to limit the amount of things you have time for! Pick two things a week that will make a difference to your business and make sure you do those two things! Write them on the top of your daily planner pages and don’t do anything else extra until those are done. Some will be able to happen within the week and some will be ongoing. If they go over the week timeline, assess at the end of the week if they are still one of the two things that will make an impact on their business and see if they should stay on the list.
- Make Friends – Now that you have a plan for your two things, what do you do with your leftover ideas? Should they shrivel and die just because you are not able to get to them? NO! Let them free to help the world be a better place!!! Okay, I know I am out of control here, I will reign it in a little…:) There are some things you can do to keep those ideas going – share them, get help, work together. If it is a great idea that you will never use but you know someone who would benefit from hearing it, tell them! If it is a great idea that you would like to use but will NEVER have time to research and develop, share it with a friend who can help with the legwork and you both can benefit! If it is an even bigger idea than that?!?!?!?! Work together with a group of people who can share your vision and chunk out pieces. THEY can put part of it on their two things to do list and the idea can keep moving forward if you all work together!
THE SUPER SECRET TO GROWING YOUR GREAT IDEAS!
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If you are reading this far you probably have some ideas, you are probably someone who is forward thinking, are curious and interesting (I know that anyways since you read my blog…:) Â So what is the Super Secret to making the most of your great ideas? DO SOMETHING! START TODAY! If you are new to the idea game start writing them down. If you are writing them down, pick two to think about. If you are focused on one or two ideas, time block to make sure that you are able to work on them.Â
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I know you are busy, I know that you have a family, job, house, pet, in-laws, etc. that need your time and energy. I know you are already working as hard as you can possibly work and that if you add 15 minutes more to your day you will DIE! Really? Are you sure you don’t have 15 minutes a day to start. 15 PLANNED MINUTES! Just think, that is over an hour a week that you were not working on your ideas before! If you get going I can GUARENTEE that you will want to do more and more. If it really is a good idea it will HELP your business and you will be even more successful than you are today!!!!
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So Tara, how is writing that book coming along?
To all you readers who are wondering why Brian P. Forrester is harassing your esteemed blog author – he is one of my marketing buddies and we have talked about things we need to do to increase our business reach. I need to write a book. Brian is RIGHT (there I said it) I need to keep my eye on the ball and write something every day!