Give Your Ideas a Chance
Some of the best advice I ever received was from one of my undergrad writing teachers. She talked about how most of us beat ourselves up before we’re out of the gate. “Give your ideas a chance,” she said. This advice has stuck with me for writing and many things.
Another bit of advice came through a little later on. It was advice that would help deepen the above. One of my friends who I founded a school club with said that we have to have lots of ideas. Not all of them are going to come to fruition let alone last.
This advice helped me to see that ideas that didn’t become fully realized weren’t necessarily things owed that simply fell through my fingers. They weren’t necessarily failures. They were in any case ideas I tested and learned from which would inform everything else going forward. This is a good thing no matter how the “failure” felt at the time.
Thinking of ideas in this way, the only obligation is in testing ideas and seeing what comes of them. This is a reframing that has saved me more than once.
I needed this reminder today. I have lots of ideas, some of which are more challenging than others. I’m in the process of learning many things to see what is possible. I hope that you too are giving your ideas a chance. Who knows what can happen, even when our initial ideas are not fully formed in the way we had initially planned.
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Originally posted at Patreon, March 25, 2021.
