I Had A Big Idea

I had a big idea.

I knew a great solution.

I found a better way, one day.

My problem was, I didn't know the question.

Have you ever felt that way?

Have you ever known in your gut, deep down in that intuitive place you keep all your secrets, that your way was a better way? Your way was the next big thing. Your way wasn't intuitive. It was innovative.

But, no one would listen.

"I can do it," you said to all those people at your weekly networking group. "Just last month I had this big idea..." but they weren't listening.

They were busy with their own big ideas. They wanted you to listen to them. They wanted you to wait, to share your big idea later after they shared their big idea.

And, oh, the big ideas were floating around the room like confetti! You could almost touch them - there were bright blue ones, purple ones, and lipstick-red ones. And the multi-colored hues were giving you a headache!

You wanted to cry, "STOP!" But you couldn't. Because even while the question wasn't, "Here's my big idea," no one wanted to hear the real question. The one they should really be asking.

And that question is, "Today's big idea, and yesterday's big idea, and tomorrow's big idea are all so different, how do you choose which one to pursue?"

"How do you know which big idea is the right one - the one people will want?"

How, indeed!

Big ideas are a dime a dozen. Where have you heard that before? Those of us of a certain age, lugging around that baby boomer label (and what does it mean, it's representative of the U.S. not, of who we are as a group; not of our lives and our talents and our deepest desires...okay, that's a rant, but you understand!), we have heard phrases like "a dime a dozen" a million times in our lives. 

How about this, "If I had a nickel for every lame-brained salesperson who tried to sell me a pet rock, I'd be rich!" Who's heard that before?

I had a pet rock (another icon of days gone by). His name was Charley. He sat on my dresser and keep watch over my jewelry because I shared a room with my 9-year-old sister. Now there's a story!

But you can substitute whatever you like. If not a pet rock, maybe the Brooklyn Bridge (is that still for sale?) Read all about pet rocks here - what a story! What an idea! 

Here's the stickler, was the pet rock a big idea? And, if it was, how did the inventor get rich from it? What did he know that we don't know?

Big ideas don't support themselves.

For every big idea you have, there are probably a dozen more you should put in the refrigerator, as one of my mentors used to say. Let it sit there for a bit.

We can't give every big idea its day. I hear people talking up big ideas all the time. They don't always call them 'big ideas', sometimes they refer to the big idea as a thought or a musing or a new product they're going to invent, but it's all talk.

For some reason, they go back to what they know because someone once told them, "Do what you know."

It's like writing - in writing class, you're told, "Write what you know"...and we do. We craft those short stories about how we fell in love at 12 and cried ourselves to sleep at night because he didn't even know we existed. We write about that time we ran away, and only got to the bus station because a ticket to anywhere costs more than $5.

And, we think we're doing what we should be doing. But, maybe we aren't.

It's good to start with what you know. But, Kathryn Eggins points out that doing what you know isn't always going to get your where you want to go. 

She talks instead about zones of excellence and zones of genius. Sort of like big ideas and bigger ideas. 

How can you tell the difference between your Zone of Excellence and your Zone of Genius?

>>> When you wake up in the morning, what’s the first thing you think of that you would love to be doing all day, every day?

>>> Is it the life you’re currently living every day?

>>> Or is it a dream in your heart?

>>> Would you love to be working with animals or traveling the world?

>>> What’s the passion that tugs at your heartstrings?

>>> That’s your Zone of Genius – colourful and bright.

If you’re simply pursuing a career because you’re good at what you do…

That’s your Zone of Excellence – enjoyable but compared to your Zone of Genius, it’s black and white.

I LOVE how she says, "That's your zone of genius - colorful and bright." 

Life should be colorful and bright. Life should be fulfilling and worthwhile. Life should be what we want it to be.

If your life isn't, you need to take an assessment of both yourself and your space. 

What do I mean by that?

Your self-assessment is when you go away for a weekend, by yourself, on a retreat, and tap into your deepest thoughts and desires.

You don't just walk the beach or hike the mountains or hang out at the dog park with your dog (Oh, did I forget to say you can take your dog? Your dog is perfect because you can talk openly and freely to your dog, and your dog will lick your face; especially if you're eating ice cream).

While you're on this retreat, you journal. You share, with yourself (and your dog) your hopes and dreams and worries and fears and if you cry a little, that's okay. You will laugh a little also.

This is the time to learn about you and the little girl or boy you once were. The one who said to her fifth-grade teacher, "I'm going to be a rocket scientist." Or, "...a ballerina." Or, "...a TV report." And, even though that fifth-grade teacher smiled and gave you a pat on the head and sent you home for lunch (I always went home for lunch, you too?), as if dismissing foolish little kid dreams, you held onto that dream ... as long as you could. 

It isn't necessary, on your retreat, to finally come to grips with that one day or week or year that you let the dream go because life whispered in your ear (or maybe it was your mother or father or some other authority figure), "You have to do this... you have bills to pay... you have a family... life isn't about you..." 

What is necessary is to remember the dream and bring it back to life. Because it's still there. I know it is.

As for assessing your space, that means understanding where you are right now. Yes, right now. Where are you living? Not your house or your neighborhood or your city. Your space. The space you breathe. 

Virginia Woolf said, "Women have sat indoors all these millions of years, so that by this time the very walls are permeated by their creative force, which has, indeed, so overcharged the capacity of bricks and mortar that it must needs harness itself to pens and brushes and business and politics."

She writes of women sitting indoors and today we sit inside of ourselves. We hunker down and take the creative force that lives within ourselves and we push it down, down, down, away from our reality, away from the light of day. Lest it escape and cause all manner of havoc.

Joseph Atser, motivational speaker and writer, says, "The only dreams that come true are the ones you chase. If you do nothing, you get nothing."

But you should follow your dreams. They should escape. Let them escape into your space. And, within that space, allow them to bring forth lightning and thunder to strike down any and all who would force you to push back the desire of your heart where you have held the dreams, hidden sometimes even from you, all these years.

Ah, doesn't that feel good? 

I had a big idea. And, I learned along the way, to ask the question my big idea needed me to ask.

Am I worthy of this big idea?

Are you worthy of yours? Do you want to take your big idea to the ultimate completion? Are you ready for the journey? 

Let's talk. Leave a comment. Send an email. Write a book. I'm here to attend to all three with you.