The Challenge of Idea Versus Reality
Our minds are wonderful creations. They have the capacity to imagine and design the most creative visions — from art to science, from new business ventures to medical cures, or anything in between. Yet it’s often those same imaginative powers our brain possesses that create some of our biggest challenges when it comes to turning an idea into a reality.
The sheer capability of our mind to grasp ideas and concepts with such fervency oftentimes comes at the expense of good old fashioned follow through. All of us have no doubt been guilty of the wide chasm that can arise between idea and reality. Why is it that we can become so enamored with the idea of something and then fall so woefully short of doing the specific things that turn that idea into reality? More importantly, what can we do to recognize and change this pattern in ourselves?
A few reasons why we fall into the gap between idea and reality.
First, we’re inundated with information like no other time in history. The brilliance of the World Wide Web combined with always connected mobile devices (or mini-computers) enables a never ending rush of content that triggers a never-ending flow of “great” ideas in our brain. The minute you open Facebook, Twitter, Snap, Apple News, or whatever portal you use to process your world, you become awash in potential triggers that help you think how to start a better food delivery service, a new crypto currency, or solve climate change. In today’s digital world, it’s become essentially a reflex to process information and turn it into so many “what if” ideas that pile up somewhere in our gray (or is it white?) matter.
Thinking big and macro is easier than mapping out details and painstaking orders of operation. The former can be done solo — at a cafe in your notebook, or during a run along the beach. Ideas come constantly — all of them equally valid as far as your fantastic mind would lead you to believe. In fact, “ideation” might be on some level akin to “runner’s high” — an experience that spurs endorphin-like positive feelings in your head, thus making idea generation such an addictive exercise. However, converting an idea to reality — or going micro — is much harder. This effort requires filling in the details. Every detail you list increases the risk that you might realize that your big idea is fraught with flaws. Or worse, each detail chips away at your enthusiasm, dragging you back from the highs you felt as the high level bullet points of your big idea got etched into your brain.
Of course, the biggest reason so many great ideas die on while on their journey to reality isn’t just because they take real work to pull off. It’s because they require real work and collaboration with other people — often times many other people, and worse yet, other people you don’t even know yet. How great would it be if each of those exceptional world-changing ideas you come up with could be unilaterally executed by YOU! That would be — to use the parlance of the day — “freaking awesome”. But it doesn’t work that way. The minute you start breaking your idea down into the march towards reality, you instantly realize other people need to be involved to make it work. And getting other people on board with turning your idea into reality is really hard, oftentimes so hard that it is enough to stop your idea in its tracks.
A few ideas on how to change or alter your behavior to turn ideas into reality.
Less is more. Try to pick — and stick — with one idea and push yourself through the practice of playing it thru to a “reality” outcome, whatever that looks like. Have that glimmer of your first start up company? Great, get going on building your punch list from idea to standing it up. Don’t stop at “to do” item number 3 either. Push through the pain and map out how you’d actually execute on this idea. Build those muscles even if you ultimately decide to discard or table the idea for another day. By the way, this process should take some time — a couple months at least.
Unless your idea is writing a book, or starring in a solo one act performance at the local theater, start thinking about the other people who you will want (and need) to be involved in turning your idea into reality. Even if you’re writing a book or doing a one-person performance, there are people you’ll need help from along the way. As you map out your punch list of what needs to get done, you’ll instantly recognize the talent you need to add in order to support your dream. Toss aside the notion you can do it all. You can’t, nor should you. In some way the people you need to bring in to execute on your idea is a math equation. Total talents needed minus your talents equals the talent you need to bring in from others. Figure out the dimensions of those three variables, and start talking to people who can bring the third variable to the equation.
Resolve and persistence is your super power. Going from idea to reality isn’t easy. It means you have to sequester the hundreds of other “big ideas” that will drift in and out of your subconscious brain, each trying to convince you to quit this “reality” nonsense that you’re attempting to perform on one of their rivals. But this is key: Constantly pushing deeper on your idea to define the things that need to get you to a “reality” state, being honest with yourself on where you can help with the execution, and then finding your partners and teammates who will be instrumental in pulling this off is what it’s all about. And doing this over, and over, and over again is what makes the biggest difference, especially when you hit walls and roadblocks. In fact, build in a core value right at the beginning like “find a way” or “refuse to be blocked” that you can lean on when times get tough and days get dark.
And one last note on failure. One of biggest barriers that likely keeps many of us from going from idea to reality is fear of failure. We too often consciously (or subconsciously) think that if we don’t pull something off and create a hugely successful outcome, that we’ll have wasted time, money, or attention to our other priorities that could have been more successful. Or worse, we fear that we’ll somehow damage our reputation and that’s something no Ego can tolerate, right? Then of course we fear the severe questioning from our mothers, whose job it is to constantly question why we aren’t just happy working at “a big bank or something safe and secure like that.”
To all the above, you have to just say “screw it”. Nobody really cares about your reputation — and for sure nobody will care 1, 5, 10, 20, or 50 years from now — so neither should you. And face it, anyone who sits in judgement of your journey from idea to reality ain’t worth wasting your time with anyway because they aren’t going to be bringing any talent to that three variable equation above. Taking an idea all the way to reality — whatever that reality — is what really represents success. That’s the whole point. Ideas are a dime a dozen — just do a quick inventory in your own mind right now or look through your notebook! Figuring out how to grab one and wrestle it all the way to a reality outcome is where few of us actually go. So go there.
Originally published on Medium on October 28, 2018 This Substack version is maintained as the canonical archive.