You have plenty of ideas. They keep coming to you – ideas for books, your job, your business. People are jealous of your imagination and all that it produces, in awe of your imagination, or just wonder "where it all comes from."
What these people don't get is that there's a darkside to a powerful imagination. You have too many ideas, and it can be distracting. You can't apply them all. You worry you're going to miss the "right one"
Welcome to Idea Burnout.
The symptoms are pretty easy. People suffering Idea Burnout usually have some if not all of these symptoms:
- You have too many ideas and get flustered figuring out which ones to use.
- Your imagination keeps pushing you to change or alter things, and you don't know when to stop.
- You fear you'll never use all your great ideas and get stressed.
- You've given up implementing ideas because you know you'll get distracted or feel you'll just get distracted.
(If you're nodding your head, you know what I mean)
I see Idea Burnout a lot – I'd go so far to say it's probably more common than a lot of people realize. I fully admit that I've had moments of it myself.
How do I deal with it?
- I keep my brainstorm books – notebooks of ideas – and review them. This way I review my best ideas, and minimize my fear of losing one.
- I keep a long-term life plan and review it regularly to make sure all the things I'm doing "hang together"- this way I know what's important to me.
- I keep a list of things I want to do, in order of priority, and review it. This way I decide what I need to do and evaluate it regularly.
- I focus on finishing things. This way when I stop something I acknowledge why I'm breaking my rule.
- I accept the fact I won't do it all.
If you have issues with Idea Burnout, give these approaches a try.
– Steven Savage