I used to get frustrated when my ideas didn’t make sense when I wanted them to, which meant right away. Because I’ve been trained with instant gratification, I find it challenging to wait between periods of focused and diffused thinking.
But when I enrolled in an online course Learning How to Learn: Powerful mental tools to help you master tough subjects in 2017, I started considering giving my ideas some time to cook.
I never appreciated unhurried thinking before, either. Only when I worked with a baby boomer who called out my generation for not giving ideas some hard thought did I appreciate it. He taught me how to give my brain some time to connect my ideas and use that same time to think things through.
That’s when I realized that I don’t usually give my ideas some hard thinking. It’s as if the first thought that comes first should be considered final, while the practice should be to question it again and again until you are fully convinced that the idea is worth talking about.
Because the point isn’t just about sharing an idea for the sake of having something to share but about sharing an idea that spreads and grows.
And so these days, I find myself more forgiving. It’s alright to not have a full and comprehensive idea at the moment, a hint of an idea is enough.
As long as you keep nurturing it and giving it careful thought, another piece will come along until you eventually have the whole thing. By then, you’d be ready to tell the world about your idea, and hopefully, it would be something worth talking about.
jessa 