Ideas in the Wild: Ted Bradshaw is Helping High Achievers Focus Their Creativity
Many people are achievers. They can get things done. They’re visionary, creative, and entrepreneurial, with twenty new ideas a week. They’re successful. But they still feel like something’s missing.
Creative, driven people have a hard time turning it off. They get ideas in the shower, at breakfast, at a ball game, at 1:00 a.m. Most are worthwhile. Some are breakthroughs. It’s far too easy to lose oneself in trying to chase them all.
Stop Chasing Squirrels lays out a step-by-step system so creative people can uncover their true, hidden passions. The goal is not to limit creativity, but to focus it so that every idea unlocks their deepest potential and fills their life with meaning. I recently sat down with Ted Bradshaw to learn more about why he wrote the book and the ideas he shares with readers.
Why did you write this book?
Have you ever seen how dogs chase squirrels? One pops up, just over the hedge. Fido takes off after it, but the squirrel is already up the tree — and look! Another squirrel!
Creative, energetic people can be like that. There’s an idea, a glimmer of one tiny corner of a possibility. A could-be, a how-about. And they’re hot in pursuit. Every now and then creative people become discouraged by the whole thing.
Because that same pattern plays out not just with ideas, but in everyday life. They chase after this exercise program, that trendy diet, the other new hobby, or the latest get-rich-quick scheme. Then one day, Facebook sends them one of those “memory” notifications: this was you, five years ago.
I used to be that way, but one day I hit a crisis point. I experienced a couple of panic attacks, seemingly out of nowhere. I realized that it was time to take stock of my life. And for the next several years, I began sorting it all out. Who was I, really? What was wrong with what I was doing, and how could I make things right? I reflected more than I ever had, and for the first time, got to know a little bit about this guy Ted Bradshaw.
What I discovered is that we chase squirrels when we lack purpose, that we can only keep chasing for so long until we drop with exhaustion or become miserable with frustration, and that this is no way to live.
What’s an idea you share that really excites you?
You may have heard the name Napoleon Hill. His 1937 book Think and Grow Rich is one of the most influential books of its kind in history. He said that successful giants of commerce shared two factors: they all had the strong belief they would succeed, and they had all-out desire and persistence.
We have an innate ability to manifest our dreams in the real world — to be the captains of our own destiny. That’s a powerful concept. Have you noticed? If we begin to believe we’re sick, it becomes so. People who expect to do well are far more likely to do well.
There’s so much power simply in what we believe about ourselves. Realizing this should cause us to stop and ask: What do I believe about myself? Am I self-confident? Do I see myself reaching my goals, or do I think negatively and create a self-fulfilling prophecy about myself?
If we have this innate power to proactively shape our destiny, then it’s entirely possible we can find our purpose, set our minds upon it, and travel the road of fulfilling it. Life will still throw obstacles at us. But if you maintain six essentials — your mind, body, soul, nutrition, money, and relationships — your journey will move smoothly and effectively.
How will implementing your idea improve your readers’ lives?
Stop Chasing Squirrels is designed to help high achievers leave behind a cluttered life of brief distractions, scattered priorities, and frustration, more and more driven by impulses and emotions that could ultimately make them miserable. Instead, they will be able to sketch out an intentional, meaningful life, with a view toward the future but a plan for the moment.
When you hear someone talking about solving your problems in one week, or losing this weight or finding instant success through this quick formula, you’re looking at a mirage. None of that is offered here. Purpose may be revealed in a day, a week, a moment. It could certainly be uncovered in the reading of this book.
But moving toward it is the journey of life itself. There are no shortcuts. So I write about the six essential elements that will keep you on that path, and what you can do to improve them as the years go on. I find that many people work on one or two of these. But when you realize the significance of all six, and nurture them all, the results are electrifying.
All in all, Stop Chasing Squirrels will help high achievers get focused, stay focused, and unleash their creativity with daily, heartfelt joy for the rest of their lives.
