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Fighting Impulsivity
Keeping my manic business creativity at bay
‘I just wish I could think of an idea. A money making idea. A side hustle,’ said me NEVER.
I’ve got the exact opposite problem.
Despite the fact that I come on Medium to have a vent and a moan, use you for free therapy and sometimes sound like an ungrateful brat, I am actually a very optimistic person.
Optimism isn’t as helpful as you might think.
My problem is that my overactive brain goes POP, POP, POP with new ideas all day long (and all night too). We are so blessed to be alive today. We have so much opportunity at our fingertips.
I even designed a notebook to capture my ideas. You can get a copy from Amazon here. It has little light bulb shapes which I put ideas into and then I brainstorm other ideas and thoughts in the surrounding spaces. I have six of these notebooks packed full of content as well as lists in the notes section of my phone.
You might be thinking, ‘Wow! How lucky are you? You’re able to come up with loads of ideas, that’s great.’
And you might be thinking that the difficulty I have with all these ideas is the execution…
What is the point in having all those ideas if you don’t execute them?
I bet you get stuck on knowing what to do next?
Are you just a dreamer?
NOPE. Executing is not my problem. Well it is, but not in the way that you’re thinking.
My problem is that I impulsively execute on tons of my ideas. I go from 1 to 100 in about 6 seconds.
I execute so impulsively that I go into a whirlwind fog of intense focus and come out the other side (about 24 hours of hyper-focus later) with a registered business, website, branded merchandise, all the equipment and all the stock.
I go hell for leather, maybe make a bit of money, then realise that my idea isn’t really sustainable. It isn’t going to make the kind of money I want it to make, especially for the effort it will take. There’s passion for the…