We are losing ideas

If you have an idea— act on it now. It’ll make you happy. I’ll tell you why.

What is an idea?

You are bombarded with information every moment. So much so that you’ve probably learnt to tune out most of it as noise. Even when it is not.

Humans thrive on their creative part of their brain. The creative brain keeps churning out ideas. It was the same biology that generated enough curiosity for early humans to rub stones together and create fire.

As they say, most ideas come in the shower. More accurately, ideas come when you free yourself of biases. Biases include — Do I have experience in this? Can I do this? How much will it cost me? What will people think?

When you think of things without thinking how hard it is, is when you stumble upon interesting ideas. All others are taken. The ones that sound interesting and are easy to do have all been done by someone.

An idea could be a wish, a curiosity, a business plan, a creative expression. It is definitely not mainstream.

What’s in an idea?

Good ideas are rare. They are hard to find. Most people complain that they don’t get good ideas. When the truth is they aren’t prepared to handle an idea when it comes their way.

You most likely are doing something all through the day — be it sleeping, eating or working. Most people don’t spend enough time to pamper their creative brain. Very few allocate time in a day just to be creative.

In such a daily schedule — it is very unlikely that an idea comes your way. But when it comes, catch it with both hands. It has already passed many filters before reaching your conscious brain. It has apparently been more interesting than the Instagram stories and Facebook posts you had been scrolling.

That is why an idea is precious

What’s in an idea, anyways?

Nothing. Ideas are worthless. Unless they are acted upon. Some ideas are good, some bad. But all of them hard.

Planning a fancy farewell? Hard. Starting a startup? Hard. Want to learn about rainforests? Hard.

The reason an idea is an idea is because no one has done it before. Nobody has done it before because it is hard to do something different.

If you want to make your ideas worth anything, the odds are against you. You need something on your side.

It is all about execution.

How to execute on an idea?

The secret weapon is momentum.

When you were thinking about the idea, you were probably excited. It’d have felt like an open floodgate of ideas. You had a creativity high. Like all highs, this one doesn’t last too long either. The enthusiasm quickly fades off. You are back to scrolling Facebook.

However, when you’re excited is also a great time to get started with the execution.

The trick is to make considerable investments in that short period of enthusiasm. Once you’ve slept over it, you already have things moving and the energy can be resumed. If you realize it was a bad idea, you can always kill it. Both ways, you’ll make an informed choice. However, if it is something worth working on, you have a considerable headstart.

What investments?

Slap your name against the idea. Take responsibility. If it fails, it was your bad idea. If it works out, you can reap the rewards.

In the moment of enthusiasm commit to something considerable. Tweet saying you are working on this idea. Buy a domain name. Send yourself Wikipedia links.

Make investments that are actually a deterrent to you being laid back.

Why ideas at all?

There are two reasons.

Your creative brain needs exercise. More you workout, more you gain. Being creative is a skill that can be developed, nurtured.

More importantly, taking something from idea to completion will make you happy. Human brain heavily rewards completion. That’s also why they say, if you are feeling depressed make art — doesn’t matter if it is good. As long as you complete an art work, you are likely to feel better at the end of it.

Holding on to your ideas and bringing them to fruition is one easy way to be happy.