Ideas are short lived

Ideas should be broadcasted…

Many people spend too much time and energy searching for the next great idea. It would be better to develop the capacity to make ideas happen, because a capacity will endure over time. I read somewhere (years ago) of a CEO of a major American corporation who said he wasn’t interested in employing people with ideas. He was only interested in employing people who did something about the ideas they had. He wanted to know how they turned their ideas into action.

Ideas are not just for creative people. Every freelance teacher is a creative artist in his own right. His canvas is his work as a teacher and coach. His art ? the students and customers. And then… most new ideas die a premature death. Do you remember what has happened to most your own ideas? I would say that most of them never happened. They never fruited.

Doomed to death is the future of most ideas

Is the death of most ideas a good thing? Some cynics say yes because society thrives on conformity. Ideas mean change, and change means risk as in mostly uneconomical in start-ups and time.

????Time as in taking the person with idea offtrack from his daily routine (family, friends, work, sleep, etc.).

????Energy as in bringing the idea to fruition by his own limitations (staying productive, i.e. physically and psychologically exhausting).

So people scoff at new ideas.

Ideas often earn the disdain of others who have no ideas

When an idea is scoffed at, the originator of the idea feels emotionally attacked and rejected. Consequently, ideas are kept silent to avoid this happening. It takes sound sense of self-confidence to go against the tide because people have a herd instinct (born out of a prehistoric need to survive) and want to be accepted and liked by his family, friends and associates. Who feels comfortable when they stand out from the rest?

Ideas in the fever of excitement

What about the ideas involving your working environment? How many obstacles are deliberately placed in your way? Isn’t it easier just not to mention the idea first? The idea dies before it is even born and everybody’s sense of comfort remains intact.

Any new idea ? be it for self-advancement or a new teaching method, or just the resolution to accept and work at your freelance teaching as a proper business endeavour ? invokes a first feeling of excitement and anticipation. Often as not, it is quickly followed by trepidation. How steadfast the decision remains in the mind and emotions of its originator goes a long way in deciding whether the idea survives or not.

Can ideas survive in isolation?

If the idea survives and the originator’s decision stands the test (if it survives the change in the person’s routine and survives the person’s limitations), there is a good chance a new idea can survive. However, if the new idea survives all this (the phase of excitement and wow-feeling), it may still die and be forgotten. Why?

Because probably you are the only person who knows about it. So ideas are mostly born AND lost in isolation.

Can an idea survive better when announced?

Isolation is fatal for at least 90 per cent of all new ideas. A human being needs the support of his “herd” for just those times when the going gets tough and despair threatens to takeover. New ideas means leaving the comfort zone of a daily routine, an accepted way of doing things, perhaps a new venture or undertaking you’ve never done before. Accountability for developing your new idea or bring it to fruition, works better in a community of shared interests.

When you’re unsure how your family, friends or colleagues will greet your new idea, an alternative is join a trusted online community to give the support and encouragement you will need to keep your idea alive.

Choose the community carefully. Internet communities are unfortunately renowned for hiding scrupulous people. Watch the forum closely to see if it is monitored. For freelance teachers, the main concern should be a running thread that ensures the care, protection and guidance of the freelance teachers using the forum.

How to announce your ideas and intentions

Announce your ideas in “The NEST”

The Freelance Teachers – Training NEST is forum where its emphasis lies in the care, protection and guidance of its community members. Its aim is help freelance teachers develop their capacity to make things happen. For example, a Freelance Teachers – Training community member can set up a personal “action” thread to develop or make a new idea or change happen. As soon as he announces his aims, he makes himself accountable for his actions using soft pressure to keep his determination alive; to see his idea or venture through. Other FTT community members will read his intended “action” and offer their support by encouraging and exchanging of ideas or advice, especially when the going gets tougher (it generally does!).

If you have an idea you would like to put into action, why not enrol in the Freelance Teachers ? Training online community (The NEST) and start a new action thread of your own? But first…

Can you answer this riddle?

He was a vegetarian and he was gay. He had no children, yet he left a heritage of immense wealth and value. Which person in the 15th century could have so much influence on King Francis I that he was paid a pension of 2000 Scudi every two years, complete with the Chateau de Cloux connected by a private and hidden underground tunnel leading directly to the King’s Private Chambers? Who could this person be and what did he do that made King Francis I consider him his friend and adviser?

Summary + Next Step

Ideas are mostly born AND lost in isolation. They imply automatically a change and are short-lived unless made public by announcement. Unfortunately, society thrives on conformity making change uncomfortable and undesirable.

On the other hand, many people spend too much time and energy searching for the next great idea when it would be better to develop the capacity to make ideas happen. If you have an idea you would like to put into action, why not enrol in the Freelance Teachers ? Training online community (The NEST) and start a new action thread of your own?

And the answer to the riddle above? Leonardo da Vinci, artist, scientist and inventor in one person. A person who incorporated and lived by one maxim: Action is the source of happenings.

Yes, ACTION is the key to change. Without action, nothing can happen. Yet Leonardo da Vinci also said “It’s easier to resist at the beginning than at the end.” He knew resistance is the enemy to change, just as he knew action was the only way to cause change.

Action is the key to make things — ideas –? happen.

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What Do You Think?

Do you have something you would like to add or say? Do you agree that ideas die in isolation? That action is what is needed to save ideas from a premature death? Add your comments and suggestions in Leave A Reply Comment box below?

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