Here’s a pattern that might sound familiar:
Step 1. You get a GREAT idea.
Step 2. Excitement.
Step 3. You tell everyone within earshot.
Step 4. You can’t sleep that night because this idea is so awesome.
Step 5. You start writing down plans.
Step 6. You start working.
…
Step 10. You get a new GREAT idea.
Sound familiar?
Starting, But Never Finishing
It’s totally fine to have ideas. In fact, we’d never really move forward if we didn’t have ideas.
For some people, though, it’s always about new ideas and never about following anything through. And that can lead to frustration and despair in life. You feel like everyone is able to find what they’re looking for and you get really low when an idea of yours doesn’t work out or if you lose the passion for something that you’ve started.
Psychologists tell us that getting new ideas is a lot like falling in love. In the early stages things are really exciting and that excitement really drives you and keeps you in the moment. But that initial feeling often wears away and if you’re not satisfied in the “normal” times then you’ll be disappointed.
Why It’s Important To Get Past This Pattern
If you find yourself in the pattern of starting, but never finishing then you’re potentially setting yourself up for disappointment and failure. Obviously if you have dreams of starting a business or getting a new job or whatever you’re going to need to see things through. Otherwise you’re just sitting at home complaining about your situation in life without every doing something about it.
But the challenge is that ideas are a dime a dozen. Everybody has good ideas. The key to success in life is being able to identify the best opportunities and then seeing it through. This means getting past the initial excitement stage and being okay with the regular stage and the work stage.
Getting out of the pattern of starting and not finishing can really change your life. It can mean reaching the point of having your own business, leading people and helping customers. It can mean anything, but it won’t happen if you don’t see it through.
A quote that works well here is that we often overestimate what we can do in the short-term while underestimating what we can do in the long-term. That’s where people get frustrated. You get an idea and think it should be off and running within a month. That’s not reality. But five years? That is reality and really not that long in the grand scheme.
Here are a few tips on how to see more things through in your life.
Tip #1. Create A Vetting Process
This is something many people overlook. They get a great idea and jump right in. That can work sometimes, but what’s usually required is taking some time to really think about the basics of the idea. How will it really work. Is it something that people really want. Will it really work for you. Can it really be profitable or do the numbers add up.
That last one is simple, but so important and yet so overlooked with people that get ideas all the time. Let’s say you have a business idea. You think it’s a billion dollar idea. Well…take a moment to consider how many widgets you’d have to sell to make a billion dollars. How much is production? How much can you sell it for?
Go over the basics. When you get an idea that you’re really excited about work through the numbers a bit. You’ll be vetting the idea and tempering the excitement a bit in a good way. And if the vetting goes well you might not be as excited, but you’ll be in a good place and feeling better about continuing.
Tip #2. Identify The “Daily Slog” and (Determine If You’re Okay With That)
Every business or new venture has a “daily slog”. It’s like how psychologists talked about love. New love is almost always exciting. But then relationships get into a more regular pattern. And that is okay. Successful relationships seem to occur when each person loves the regular pattern.
Think about your idea and how it would look once you’re in it and working through the slog. If that slog doesn’t scare you off and you’re okay with it then you might be onto something.
Tip #3. Work On One Side Project At A Time
It’s possible to have a job, family, hobbies and still work on a side project. But if you have all kinds of ideas floating around in your head it can be difficult to put the focus on one and see it through. When you hit on an idea that you’re excited about go through the two steps above and if that goes well then commit to working on it and only it for a good period of time.
If you have new ideas you can write them down and save them for later, but now you’re focusing on the original idea you had. See it through and don’t let excitement and distraction come into play. That idea will always be there waiting in case things don’t work out.
Conclusion
A final key lesson here is that seeing things through is the only way you’re going to succeed with big dreams in life, but you have to know the right time to call it quits and move on. That might be never. Many successful musicians have never seen another option other than selling a million records. Tiger Woods probably never had a backup plan other than golfing. That might be the case for you and that’s okay, but go through the tips above and vet your idea. Start where you are now, but think long-term. Think about the numbers and do some vetting. If you get through that then you can feel pretty confident that if you are persistent that the reward will be worth it. If not, then you can move on to the next idea.
