I’m an idea person. It’s the way my brain works.
Some days I’m literally on fire with ideas. I’ve probably got four or five germinating AS WE SPEAK.
They say that necessity is the mother of invention, but I say invention is a necessity.
Once, when my bike was stolen outside of Santa Monica library on a foggy day several years ago, I created an online database called Stop Bicycle Theft where other poor bike theft victims could post profiles of their stolen bikes. This site was wildly successful if you equate traffic to success, but I got pulled in other directions. I also didn’t have the personal bandwidth to continue posting content, while the technology, flash, was going out of style. Vigilantism still stirs within me when I see old pick-up trucks piled high with presumably stolen bikes on their way to Southern California swap meets. Back then, I had big plans to expose bike thieves on YouTube. To alter the course of history one recovered bike at a time. What can I say? I think big! Always have. Because anything really is possible. BUT, I let the Stop Bicycle Theft domain expire, and with it went all those missing bikes. Sigh. Yet, I learned a lot from executing that “idea,” AND from letting it go.
It’s tempting to wonder “what-if” – what if I had made those YouTube videos, kept working on that site, converted it to another platform, done some PR, kept blogs going, done the work – where would it be now? Where would I be now?
Instead of continuing to what-if myself into oblivion, I say NEXT. There are just so many ideas, and so little time, to waste a single second dwelling on the past. Learn from it? Yup. And then MOVE your @#$ on.
What I’ve realized about myself, is that I’m at my best when I’m engaging with others about my ideas and theirs. I’m also my happiest when I’m kind to myself in realizing that not all ideas are meant to take root.
And that’s okay.
Ideas, after all, are what make us human, they’re what set us apart from all the other beautiful, amazing, but sometimes ferocious creatures on this marvelous, rare earth we’re lucky to inhabit.
I’m learning to keep better track of my ideas. To write them down. To organize them. They may not all bloom into sweet smelling flowers, but the act of nurturing them, of sharing them, of thinking them through is important. It’s an exercise for the mind. If life begets life, then ideas, most certainly give birth to more ideas.
Exciting, isn’t it?
What have you got it the cooker right now? Any cool projects I should know about? What’s exciting you? What ideas are you allowing to take root in your life?
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