(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com and Steve’s Tumblr. Find out more at my newsletter.)
There’s a twilight zone of ideas, somewhere between “am doing now” and “random things I probably won’t do.” You know those books, art pieces, or cosplays that you kinda want to do but not right now? I’m sure you do, and they’re frustrating as you want to do some but can’t do all.
I’d suggest that’s because someone else needs to look at them. That someone else is you.
Let me explain.
I keep such ideas in what I call “The Incubator.” It’s a ranked list of things I know I’d like to do and want to do, but I’m not going to take action on immediately. I look at it now and then, usually when I add new ideas to it. Know what I find?
Some ideas really are good. Others . . . I’ve lost interest in, or see they’re not worth it. So the Incubator gets updated, and life goes on. There’s a lot of clarity looking at my ideas months or even a year later because who I am is different.
Every time I glance at the Incubator, I’m bringing new wisdom, insights, and concerns. I see the ideas of “Past Steve” in a different, hopefully, more informed light. I trust “New Steve’s” opinion more than the last me.
So next time you’ve got a whole lot of possible projects? Write them down, and take a look later. It will be a different person taking a look at them. That future you will bring more clarity, even if that clarity is “that was a bad idea, what was I thinking?”
Give yourself some time to become the someone else you need to evaluate your supposedly bright ideas. They may shine even brighter in the future.
Steven Savage