The “Project Plateau:” The den of abandoned ideas and how community helps you get through it
Have you started a project that you seemed very passionate about just to abandon it a few weeks later?
You got very excited about the idea. 😀 🤓 You told friends about this new project. Came up with the initial structure. You envisioned your end goal vividly.
It was very clear in your mind.
You purchased and setup everything you thought was needed — a journal, sketchbook, google drive folders…you even got a few of your friends to buy-in on your vision.
A few weeks later, the excitement wore off 😒 and you found yourself starring at maybe 5% progress. You spent a few days trying to motivate yourself but you’d lost momentum to continue.
THEN…..A new idea came up!!!! 💡😀🤔
You got excited again, abandoning the last project, just to lose momentum again, down the line, and abandon the new project.
Does this sound familiar?
You might have denied the inner drive that spurred you to start the project in the first place and said: “Meh, I just have too many interests. It’s alright”
Then as you looked at your den of abandoned projects, you might have angrily rejected your ideas: “Hey, who really has time for such frivolous activities. I have bigger things to worry about..my job..the bills…maintaining my status” 😐
You then began to get down on yourself: “Maybe I’m just not disciplined enough? Only if I had enough support.”
What followed in your inner dialogue was: “Maybe I just don’t have what it takes?”
And then the acceptance: “This is just not for me. Let me stick to what I know”
Have you found yourself in this maddening CYCLE ♽ before?
This time around, before you accept that expressing your ideas to the world is not for you, I want to insert something to break that cycle.
Because you do have what it takes to make that important idea or story, a reality.
There was something that drove you start it in the first place. There’s a reason you were initially excited about it.
You just continue to hit the “project plateau”
The project plateau is the stage in every project that you lose interest in your ideas. That’s when the reality sets in about how much it will take to bring your vision to fruition.
I learned about this concept from author and entrepreneur, Scot Belsky in his book, Making Ideas Happen.
The project plateau is littered with the carcases of dead ideas that have never happened. What do we do? We just generate a new idea. We do it again and again and again. What we continue to do is we escape this project plateau with a new idea, and instantaneously we return to this high of excitement, this willingness to execute. And this is why there are more half-written novels in the world than there are novels.” ~ Scott Belsky
The problem is that we usually underestimate what it takes to go from idea → reality
- the executions steps required and
- how to conserve our energy throughout the project lifecycle.
Understanding this project plateau before starting a project is important, so that you can anticipate the dip, maintain your energy line, and keep the momentum.
One of the most crucial aspects of making it through this project plateau is a support group and community.
Having a group of people that will cheer you on, share resources, feed your curiosity, and keep you accountable throughout your project is significant motivation to keep you on track to your creative goals.
I learned this personally as I wrote both TOFFY’S DIVIDE and PRESS PLAY.
Sometimes all you need to hear is the reminder: “You can do this”
That’s why I started Storyteller’s Lounge with NapoRepublic.
I want to build a space for us to consistently turn our ideas and stories to reality…with a supportive community of multifaceted professionals and entrepreneurs on similar paths.
⭐️Unleash your storytelling genius and wirte stories the world pays attention to in the Storyteller’s Lounge with NapoRepublic.⭐️
