What If You Could Bottle That?

By Gail Richards - Jul 28 , 2008

What’s that? You have a new idea you’re excited about? A new connection? A new opportunity? Renewed inspiration? Congratulations!Are you ready to dive in headfirst? Are you ready to tie up loose ends? Dot your “i”s? Cross your “t”s? Good, because if it’s not done by tomorrow morning at nine, you might as well not bother.

What’s wrong with you, you slacker?

If only we could bottle the excitement we feel when we are unconditionally excited by some new possibility and not yet mired in the detail. And, if only we could see that everything absolutely does not have to be done at once. Not only does it not have to be, it usually—logically and logistically—cannot.

Give yourself a break.

Here’s the problem with getting off-the-charts excited and energized: You have to plunk all that excitement, energy and the idealism that fuels it, back into your real life. And your real life might not have the means to accommodate it on the grand scale that you originally envisioned.

Often, your best big ideas will come to you when you are outside of your natual habitat, when you are “away from it all.” For example, when you’ve taken a long weekend away from home or are attending a conference. There’s nothing bad about this. I just want you to be prepared for the cold, harsh light of Monday morning when you’ll be pulled in ninety-six different directions by real life, none of which leads in the direction of your book or new product idea.

Let me repeat: Give yourself a break.

I know many of us have been, are on, or will be going, on summer vacation. Even if you go on vacation, we all know that your mind is still hard at work in the background. It’s not at all unlikely that you’ll come up with a whopping good idea when you least expect it, like on the sixth hole of the mini-golf course, speeding down a waterslide, or in the airport bathroom.

What’s an author to do when inspiration so rudely strikes? Write it down and let it go. Capture it, and move on. When you get back, be reasonable, or at least try to be.

In an already full life, where did you think you were going to fit development of that amazing new product line that didn’t exist a week ago?

I’m not saying don’t do it. I’m saying, step back and be intentional about when and how you will tackle great new opportunities so that you don’t end up abandoning your good ideas out of frustration that could easily be avoided had you remembered to take into account that whole thing about there being only 24 hours in each day.

Bottle your excitement, and then pour it out a few teaspoons at a time to make it last.