What would happen if you actually followed your genius?
If you have ever had an idea that you wanted to make happen, but let yourself get talked out of it, this blog post will help you break that pattern and actually go for it.
What idea have you had, that you’ve been putting off for way too long? By ignoring that little voice as it pops into your head you are sleeping on your future!
Or does the idea pop and then your brain starts saying things like 'how will you do that, you've never done that before!', 'who are you to do that?', 'who will buy from you?', 'you don't have the experience to do that', 'what will people say if I do that?'
I'm sure you have your own unique flavour of thoughts like these!
All these negative thoughts swimming through your mind when your genius strikes, how helpful are they?
NOT AT ALL, is how helpful they are!
In this blog I want to explore the ideas that we have allowed ourselves to be talked out of, and what actually happens when we stop doing that.
The conversation that got me thinking
A few weeks ago I had very similar conversations with my friends Inga & Pearl, about ideas that we have that we haven't acted on. Creative ideas that have come to us, that we have talked ourselves out of acting upon. It got me thinking about how often this happens and how many people around the world die with their ideas unacted on, because we haven't had the courage or the tenacity to go for them.
Or simply, because we allow life to get too busy. And yes, I use the word allow here intentionally. We allow ourselves to not take action and spend more time managing our circumstances than becoming creators of our lives.
My question to them and now to you, ‘what would happen if we followed our genius? If you just did that thing?’
What would happen if we stopped letting that negative voice silence our ideas and dreams and instead took action?
The world would be a so much richer place, that's for sure!
I believe deep in my core that we all have genius within us. Each of us has an idea, a vision, a something that the world needs. If we can see it in our minds, we can hold it in our hands.
An exercise to turn the volume up on your genius
Grab a pen and paper, you're going to do a bit of free writing.
Step 1: Brain dump every idea you have All the ideas, visions and pops of inspiration that have ever come to you. The wackier the better, don't worry about whether they're achievable or right, just list them all. Make it fun, honestly the weirder the better.
Step 2: Push further When you think you're done, come up with 10 to 15 more. This is where you have to really stretch your mind and get creative. The good stuff is usually hiding here.
Step 3: Pick your top 3 Go back over your list and choose the 3 that feel the most fun, the most interesting or the most useful in the world. Not the most sensible. The most alive to you.
Step 4: Drill into each one For each of your top 3, answer these three questions and write them down. What problem does this solve? What solution does it create? Who is it for?
Step 5: Stress test it Go to the people who have the problem your idea solves and find out if your idea would actually be useful to them. That's your first round of market research and it costs nothing but a conversation.
Step 6: Choose one and shelf the rest Choose one idea to focus on, just one. For everything else, do what Steven Bartlett calls putting ideas on the shelf. Note them down somewhere safe and come back to them later. They don't have to die, they just have to wait.
Now go for it
Let's stop our minds talking us out of our dreams. Let's stop worrying about looking silly. Maybe we just need to lean into the silliness, the fun, the joy and the excitement of a great idea and go for it.
Like I said, you have genius within and I believe your dreams matter as much as your responsibilities. And that includes this one.
Come and build it in person
If you're a woman in Dumfries & Galloway with goals and dreams you're ready to actually act on, join me on 20th June for a Vision Board Workshop. There are 20 spots, it's a creative morning designed for women who are done waiting. Come alone, join a room full of women also taking action and leave with a visual map towards your ideas and goals.