A Guy With Ideas
I am a guy with a lot of ideas. Looking back over my last 10 years, many of them have been terrible or “meh”, and some have been great. The problem with my genius of invention is not the quality of the ideas, but the lack of tenacity to execute. Jumping from one idea to another is exhilarating and I get a dopamine hit with each new idea. All that is great, but is disastrous if kept unchecked.
I just finished listening to Atomic Habits by James Clear. While he does not address the above problem directly, he does discuss how to build new habits. (It’s not a boring book. I wish I would have listened to it when it first came out. I resisted the book just because it was so popular. Dumb reason.)
A new idea needs a system. A system is essentially a repeatable way of doing any particular task. Much like a habit. Atomic Habits taught me to start small with building a new habit (or system). Here is my own summary of this process:
New idea pops into my head.
I ask myself: Does this fit into my weekly routine?
If yes, can I schedule a particular time of day when I work on the execution of the idea.
What tools will help me execute the idea more efficiently?
If the idea does not fit into my weekly routine, I can simply push off the idea to a later date for review.
Here is how this works out in real life for me:
I have been interested in business for over 10 years now and have operated one for over 2 years. I have often thought about sharing what I learn and conversations I have with the world through media: YouTube or podcast. Both of these take substantial commitment to get off the ground.
So I asked myself what the smallest, simplest version of this idea is. As a result, I have started to share some of my learnings and stories through Instagram and Facebook reels. A phone is all I need, and the time commitments are minuscule compared to long format media. The short format video still challenges me to express my ideas, it still has a camera staring into my face. I can figure out what works and what doesn’t. And I can do all this without a massive long term commitment. But I can still execute on the long format media idea in the future if I want to.
Here is my system:
When my day in the office is done, I head over into our “board room shed”. I turn my phone camera on, and several minutes later I have a story to share with the world. I then pop the footage into Descript which helps me edit it efficiently. I then create the cover in Canva based on a template I have used before. I upload all this to Instagram which also automatically feeds it to my Facebook.
The execution of an idea doesn’t have to be complicated. Remember, the execution of an idea is more important than the idea itself. Every single time.
