Have you ever had a great idea—or two—that you were eager to act on, but you couldn’t seem to get moving? It could have been an art project, a blog, a book. Whatever it was, the initial inspiration seemed so clear, and then? Mush.
There are two big—and curable—reasons this happens, and neither of them has anything to do with the quality of the idea itself. That is, you don’t usually get stuck because your idea is bad. You get stuck because you haven’t made a decision or you don’t have conditions of satisfaction.
Decisions are powerful
When you make a decision you choose to commit. You’re saying, This is what I am going to do. This is what I am going to create.”
You can have a great idea, a wonderful, juicy, vivid idea, but until you decide to commit, it’s just an idea. It doesn’t matter how good an idea you think it is. It doesn’t matter how much time you spend thinking about it. Until you decide to bring it to life, nada.
What makes a decision a decision
A decision is a decision when two things happen: You choose and you declare that you have chosen.
Choose: The Latin root of decision means to cut off or cut away. And when you choose to do one thing, you are choosing not to do something else. You cut away some possibilities for the sake of the one you choose.
Fear of letting go of other possibilities is one of the chief blocks to making a decision. But notice: If you try to keep all the possibilities open, you never follow through on any of them. To make your idea real, you’re going to have to choose it over other ideas.
Declare you have chosen: Language makes things happen. We declare things into existence, as when a minister declares, “I now pronounce you husband and wife.” Your decision is complete when you put your choice into words and declare it to yourself and others.
The declaring it to others piece is important. A declaration is incomplete until it is both spoken and heard. To put oomph behind your decision, get a witness.
Now what? How vision gets fuzzy
So you’ve made a choice and declared it, now what? Many an idea stalls at this point. The original vision gets surprisingly fuzzy.
When you think about, you’ll see it’s natural for an idea to get fuzzy after you’ve decided to pursue it. For one thing, you may be a bit shy about the choice you’ve made. Can you really do this thing? Will it work? For another, bringing an idea to life usually involves a lot of moving parts. Many different things will need to be done at many different times. Right after you’ve made a decision, it’s easy to be swamped by all the steps you might need to take. The simple brilliance you started with becomes quite confused.
Restore focus with conditions of satisfaction
Conditions of satisfaction define what has to happen in order for you to be satisfied with how your idea unfolds. They are tremendously helpful in getting beyond vague, if inspired, visions. Once you have set conditions of satisfaction, it is much easier to see what needs to happen for your idea to take shape.
Let’s say you decide to start a blog. While it was still a sparkling idea, you felt quite inspired by the possibilities. Now that you’ve declared that you’re going to do it, so many questions crowd your mind. What are you going to write about? How often should you post? How do you get people to read it?
Before you start to answer those questions, stop. Check in with yourself and connect with your original reasons for choosing this idea. What has to happen for you to be satisfied with the blog you create?
Sample conditions of satisfaction
Here are conditions of satisfaction a nutritionist might write for a blog intended to attract prospective clients. In parentheses after each condition of satisfaction are standards for meeting that condition.
- Blogging has to fit into the time I have available and not compete with serving clients. (Standards: I’ll spend at least two hours and no more than four hours a week working on the blog. No more than 20 minutes per week will be spent on technical stuff. If I can’t solve something in 10 minutes, I’ll get help.)
- I need to be able to keep up with twice weekly posts without tearing my hair out thinking up ideas. (Standards: 50% of my posts will be me talking about good nutrition in my own voice. The other 50% will be me pointing to other blog posts or resources on the Web and commenting on them.)
- Visitors have to feel like they’ve landed in a yummy place. (Standards: 75% of posts will have vivid photos of healthy food simply prepared. Colors will be bright, clear, and simple. My photo will show me smiling and in casual clothing.)
- The blog will attract new readers every month. (Standards: There will be a way for people to subscribe to the blog. I will spend at least an hour each week reading and commenting on related blogs. I will take an online course in Search Engine Optimization for blogs. I will announce new posts to the people on my mailing list once a week and ask them to tell their friends. I will tweet about new posts.)
Notice that standards describe specifically what you will do-and when-to meet your conditions of satisfaction. It’s also important the standards be something you can control by your own actions. If you live up to your standards, you declare yourself satisfied.
Your great ideas don’t need to be stalled by temporary fuzziness
It’s natural to go through a phase of fuzziness when you have a great idea. Your great idea will look a lot more possible after you’ve made a clear decision and created conditions of satisfaction.
Photo credit: Zetson via flickr
About Molly Gordon
