In the past few years, I have made lists of ideas. Ideas that were going to change my life forever.
The list kept changing, but I remained the same. The reason being, I put a lot of thoughts in generating ideas, but failed to implement most of them.
One thing I have learned over time is that thinking about thousands of ideas doesn't matter. What matters is how much you can execute.
Execution matter more than ideas. Ideas are important but they are not enough.
You can have a million dollar idea, but if you don't execute, it will still be worth zero.
There is a widespread belief that brilliant ideas are the secret to success. The concept about brilliant ideas is that only you are able to see them. The whole world fails to understand these ideas from your perspective.
I have seen people stressing on ideas more than what they are worth. My cousin is always trying to figure out a million dollar idea. An idea that can change his life forever. An idea that will give him enough wealth. And then, he will never have to work again.
However, as you must have guessed, no such idea exists. He focus too much on idea. And very less on how he can execute it. In the last five years, he had some really great ideas. Like creating an app that will help the school kids. His concept was good. And he had enough resources to make it real.
But it was not a life changing idea. Too much of work, and too less rewards in sight.
So, he dropped that idea, and continued his journey to figure out his next big idea.
Unfortunately, this is a flawed concept. And it is only execution that truly matters. A unique idea is never sufficient. And sometimes, it is not even necessary.
Proper execution of an old idea would be more than enough.
Execution requires hard work, persistence, and handling failure after failure until you succeed. Ideas only require idle thinking.
That's why most people stress more about new ideas than proper execution. There is less work in thinking about new ideas.
Success is simple, but not easy. — Warren Buffett
Ideas must be implemented, and that makes all the difference. The way someone implements an idea.
There are thousands of cryptocurrencies out there. Most coins die within the first 6 months. It's not because they were not created based on a unique idea. On the contrary, almost all the coins out there offer an idea that is too good to be true.
Most ideas behind the coins are unique and special. But most of the owners, and contributors, fail to implement and execute these ideas. And that's why all of these coins fail.
Just like steemit. The idea was to have a decentralised platform. But it was controlled by one specific entity. With time, steemit became more and more centralised.
And as a result, it will die, sooner or later.
To achieve results, you need to be obsessed with execution
To become a better writer, you don't need a new idea. What you need is "knowing how to execute your content ideas". You need to write daily, work consistently to improve your content quality.
It's the daily execution that makes you a good writer.
Always focus on taking small steps
If you are serious about achieving your goals. You need to reduce your goals into tiny manageable actions. Actions you can repeat over a period of time to achieve big results.
I focus on taking small steps because I won't overthink about it. It will build momentum. And it removes indecision about whether you want to pursue something or not.
Reduce anything you want to do— to a small action you can take daily. So that you can move from deciding to doing.
I have a big to-do list. Like writing blogs, learning how to code, trading, creating content online etc.
Breaking all of these things into small steps helps me with execution. To achieve my daily goals. And because of this, my overall goals turns from ideas to reality.
Just like me, you would have a big to-do list. A big list of goals. The only problem you are facing is a commitment.
A commitment to take action daily.
Sometimes it is difficult being committed daily. That's why you have to figure out a couple of ways to do it. Something like becoming excited about your goals.
If you are excited about something, taking action will be the easiest thing to do. You will not be able to hold yourself until you start it. So, figure out a way to excite yourself about the things you want to do.
Have a deadline for your goals
Another approach to bring ideas into reality is to schedule them. Because what gets scheduled, usually gets done.
For example, when I made a goal of writing daily on hive, I made a deadline of posting before 12 daily. And, in doing so, a lot of times, I posted half baked articles. Articles that had no meaning. Posted articles when I was in no mood of writing. Only because I committed to post something before 12. Even if it was utmost garbage.
The drawback of this approach is that if you commit to too many things, you will be left all messed up. Waking up at 6. Doing workout before 8. Completing your important task before 11. And writing an article before 12. Too many deadlines in a day, and you won't be able to complete most of them.
So, it's better to decide your priorities. Otherwise you will put 100 things on your calendar that you want to do. But you won't do most of them. You will be left all confused.
Only put those things with a deadline that you want to do at any cost.
Doing a lot of unnecessary stuff will make you feel busy at all times. You will feel that you are putting a lot of efforts but not achieving much.
However, you are not doing much in reality. You are putting some efforts but you are not being effective enough.
So, schedule only high value tasks. Tasks that you want to finish at high priority. Tasks that makes you effective.
Be specific about your actions
The more specific you are about the action you are going to take. The more chances you will complete your work.
Write every step carefully. Just like goals. People who believe in the power of the subconscious mind, write every specific detail about their goals. And they believe that it helps them to achieve their goals.
You can use the same technique to do your work. Write specific details about your actions. Things you are going to do. And you will execute it easily.
Top performers focus on daily actions that helps them in moving closer to their goals.
Top athletes are in the gym daily, at the same time. The best writers, artists produce content daily. For the top performers, actions and daily practise matters more than planning. It's the execution that matters the most for them.
The focus is on taking action. Not achieving X number of goals by a certain date.
The process is the goal
The point of getting good at execution is that process itself becomes your goal. You have to double down on completing the process.
What you execute today is what you will build for a better tomorrow.
Hello @looftee, Once again here, very good post = D I congratulate you.