There are just too many things to do in life than to spend countless time diddling with ideas. Oh...don't get me wrong, ideas are needed to shape our future, but as the tasteless old slogan goes "ideas are like assholes..every person has one." Are ideas that important?
Of course they are, but we've placed too much emphasis on the cultivation of ideas, and have developed a cultural idea fetish. It's the spun gold of business, the cornerstone of innovation, and the content of countless books and articles. Companies spend millions to protect "cutting edge" ideas, and intellectual property attorneys collect millions to oblige. Entrepreneurs look for the "next big idea" and philosophers and politicians make pronouncements about and "idea, whose time has come".
But there is something vastly more important than a few good ideas. Action. If a notion isn't put into action, developed, thought through, built and used, it exists as little more than a distraction, and sometimes a costly one at that. Those of us who posses a strong creative impulse have to spend less time shaking the crystal ball in hopes of finding a new idea, and more time following a plan of action. What are we going to do with our ideas is more important than having brilliance.
Ideas are all too often useless coinage that tumble about the mind. Consistent, step by step action, actions that results in creation are what makes a better world, or at the very least, makes us a better living.
The imagination is a big talker, it has big plans for you, but takes up a lot of mind space, most of if useless clutter. Take control and practice action, measure your own outcomes and tune your action performance. It's what actually will make a difference.
1) Keep a journal. Keep a list of your ideas in a single place, but don't clutter up the pages of your journal with a million ideas...remember, nearly all of them are useless, don't become a hostage.
2.) Keep a journal. Track the individual steps you need to take to birth an idea and bring it into reality. Record what you're learning, what your insights are, and what you need to do next. (I use Toodledo, and find it really supports that flow)
3.) Give up visualizing the end goal. Visualize the steps, and what you need to do today, and tomorrow.
4.) Use goals sparingly. Having goals is fine, but they're like ideas, and too often we become seduced into thinking that having goals is what makes success. No. Action is what leads to success. Fewer goals, more action.
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