Having ideas is often not a problem. Our minds are problem-solving organisms, and we never stop thinking. The following tips will help you get your ideas out of your head and into the real world.

Capture Them

The first step to putting your ideas into action is to capture them. We’ve all had the experience of having a blindingly brilliant idea at 3am in the morning, or whilst we’re in the shower, which maddeningly vanishes when we’re in a position to do something about it.

Keep a notebook, and cultivate the habit of writing down every idea that pops into your head.

Glance Over Them

That blindingly brilliant idea that you noted down at 3am in the morning will probably seem utterly dumb in the cold light of day. That’s fine.

Go through your notebook and highlight all the ideas that seem most promising. Put it aside, go back and repeat the exercise a few days later. By combing through your ideas in this way, you’ll find the ideas that stand the most chance of success out there in the real world.

Important – don’t discard anything. That utterly dumb idea might become blindingly brilliant again in another context.

Construct Them

Time to plan. How can you turn that idea into reality? The trick is to work backwards – identify the end result you want and then fill in the steps you need to take to get there. Remember to make your desired result SMART – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Timely.

It can be useful to do this exercise in your head. Imagine yourself a year from today when your idea has come to fruition. What do you see, hear and feel? What, where and with whom is this idea taking place? How did you get there? What was the very first thing you did?

Bring yourself back to the present, and now write down the following – what single thing can you do today, tomorrow and the day after to put that idea into action?

Once you’ve identified those steps, go and do them!

Published by @INeedMotivation

3 Comments

  1. yeah, it’s really crucial to write them down as soon as possible….I have had ideas that I lost completely a few hours later…you never know, some of these can be gold, so best to not risk it!

    Reply
  2. I’ve found that my best ideas come to me as I’m ‘dumping’ everything that’s on my mind in the evening. To retain them I write them on a piece of paper because if I don’t, I’ll forget them completely.

    Reply
  3. I’ve found that my best ideas come to me as I’m ‘dumping’ everything that’s on my mind in the evening. To retain them I write them on a piece of paper because if I don’t, I’ll forget them completely.

    Reply

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