Do you ever conceive of an idea, start the project, and after that acquire absentminded in imitation of a new one? do you have hundreds of great ideas that never acquire finished? pull off you jump roughly from one project to another?
You're in good company. It's a common pattern accompanied by very creative and clever people. I call it "leap frogging," and it's what happens bearing in mind people choose having ideas to carrying them to completion.
There are many reasons we leap frog. One is that it's more fun to think and fake following further "toys" than it is to operate past obsolete ones. unorthodox is that any project has its own rhythm, which includes lulls, slumps, and brick walls. It's easier to start a further project that hasn't hit a wall, lull or slump than it is to perform through the wall, lull or slump of the current project. And a third, which is more common than a lot of us think, is a warning that we'll never have epoch to get every the stuff over and done with in our lifetimes, or even more significantly, that we'll forget this great supplementary idea and every it's nuances by the times we've the end the current project. After all, it does happen - all the time.
There are many time executive approaches to harmony with the first two reasons, but few house the third issue: what if I forget? After all, in the manner of we first come happening bearing in mind an idea, we are in adore behind it. We don't desire it to drop by the wayside. (Even even though we may not vibes that mannerism nearly six weeks into it, behind something additional and more interesting comes along.) hence we permit ourselves to acquire absentminded and hop into that shiny, supplementary project.
Here's a solution. Set happening a Possibilities list. Arrange four files, or sections in a three-ring notebook, or all system works for you. Label these, "This Year, adjacent Year, Some Year, and Maybe." (If this phrase rings a bell, it's adapted from an dated hop rope rhyme.) after that next you get your neighboring good idea, scribble no more than one page nearly that further idea, and later file it, according to subsequently you want to acquire to it, on the other hand of jumping on it right away.
Once every month or two, agree to half an hour, sit by the side of once a cup of tea or coffee most likely a piece of chocolate - and go through your Possibilities. create it a fun, pleasant activity. add to them, pretend to have them around, attach them, throw them. You don't have to accomplishment on anything. Just appreciate your fruitful mind and enjoy your ideas.
A couple of things upshot from this approach. First, you no longer craving to worry that your idea for the world's most useful kitchen gadget or the good American Novel is going to evaporate. Next, by going higher than your Possibilities regularly, you develop answer and worship for your creativity. It takes away the distress signal of creative block; if you can't think of something, go to your Possibilities file. Even if none of those ideas work, they will likely flesh and blood something else. Your great ideas will benefit, too, from a mature of incubation and occasional re-working. (You will probably discover that some of those good ideas would plus from a visit to the recycle bin. But enlarged to discover that since you start, rather than later.)
So dont let those great ideas distract you from the ones youre in force on, but dont let them go to waste, either. Use your Possibilities File to keep them affable until the era is right.
NOTE: You are welcome to use this article online in electronic newsletters and e-zines as long as it remains fixed and unaltered (including the "about the author" info). If use of this article is desired in print, you must first door Lynn Cutts at Lynn@ManageYourMuse.com.
Copyright 2005 Lynn Cutts
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