How To Get Ideas…Lesson #4

Today is the last installment on the series HOW TO GET IDEAS…if you haven’t read the others please do so here…

Ideas will change the course of your life…that is if you act on them. Ideas thought about, collected, and marinated do nothing if no action is attached to them. Ideas on their own are meaningless unless they become a reality by living them out. Many people have great ideas, but they fail to implement them and execute them. Ralph Waldo Emerson said,

“An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory.”

We can’t let our ideas marinate to the point of spoiling. There is a shelf-life to ideas if not acted on. Everyone has ideas, not many act on their ideas. The difference between the successful and the unsuccessful is their ability to act on great ideas. French Playwright Molier said,

“Men Are All Alike In Their Promises. It Is Only In Their Deeds That They Differ.”

Turning ideas into action is the hard part of the idea process. It is where you have to step out and GO. If you sit on an idea for too long you will squash it. So how do you turn ideas into action? You have to trust your ideas. This may seem simple, but you have to believe in your ideas or you will never step out and do them. No one ever truly knows if their idea will work on the front end. It is not until we step out and act that we know if the idea will work.

A few years ago I was reading Dave Ramsey’s book EntreLeadership. In it he mentioned everyone should have multiple streams of income by making money at things you love to do. So I began to think about what I love to do that I could make money doing. Well I had an idea pop into my mind (because I spent time thinking). I have always loved painting artwork over the years and would even make all my friends that came over to our house paint a landscape as I walked them through it. I literally instructed 9 friends over the years in my garage on how to paint. So I starting thinking about how to turn that into an opportunity to make money. Well, I figured out a way to provide art classes with all the material provided for people to walk in to a class, have everything they need ready to go and paint a 16×20 landscape from beginning to end in 2 hours. Now over 2 years later I have had over 80 people take my art classes. It has been a blast doing what I love to do and making money at it! I have also made online video lessons on how to paint and sold my artwork in shows, fairs, etc… None of this would have happened without thinking of the idea and then committing to it. I didn’t know if anyone would take my art class when I made the flyer and posted it on my Facebook account. As a matter of fact the night I came up with the idea I made a flyer, priced out the stuff, and put it out there with a date I had picked. Did I know all the details…NOPE! I just knew I had a great idea. I figured if people sign up I will figure out the rest…and I did! My art classes are a blast and everyone has incredible things to say afterwards…THEY LOVE IT! Pretty good idea I’d say. The point is…I had to step out and act on the idea or it would have done nothing expect float in my mind, on paper, and marinated to death.

What ideas do you have that you need to believe in and commit to? What are you doing to step out and simply go with your ideas? Of course it is going to take faith to act on an idea that has either never been done or at least never been done by you. It wouldn’t be a great idea if you knew exactly what will happen. In order for it to be a great idea it takes an element of the unknown, but you’ll never know the sweet taste of success if you don’t step out and put yourself out there. Don’t be afraid to fail, failure is just a learning lesson on how to not do it next time. The road to success if paved with failure. Failure is simply a part of learning. Many of your ideas will fail at first, but that is how you refine them and make them better!

So act NOW! Don’t get destroyed by the law of diminishing intent which says, “The longer you wait to do something you should do now, the greater the odds are you will never actually do it.” Don’t live your life by waiting to live your life. Step out and GO!

A real decision is measured by the fact that you’ve taken a new action. If there’s no action, you haven’t truly decided.
~ Tony Robbins ~

Lesson #4 – Act On Your Ideas