Your Idea Isn’t Good Enough and How To Find A Good Idea

Wait, what? Is that contraction supposed to be there? Shouldn’t that have said your idea is good enough?

Nope.

If your idea was good enough, you would pursue it. If your idea was good enough, you would carve out precious time for it. If your idea was good enough, it would keep you up at night and force you to work on it, hour after hour.

Let me be clear: I’m not saying your idea sucks. I’m not saying your idea is bad.

What I’m saying is that you’re resisting taking action with your idea. The reasons for resisting might be totally legitimate. Sometimes we’re just not ready, and that’s okay. Not being ready is okay.

Sometimes we’re TOO ready, and we get dangerously consumed by an idea. Some people’s ideas take control of their lives.

It can be scary to have an idea so powerful, or a job so demanding, that it ruins relationships and destroys your health.

Sounds drastic, right? How could a simple thing like an idea do that? Ask Mita Diran, the 24-year-old copywriter who died at her desk after spending 30 straight hours in the office. Consider the Japanese concept of karoshi, which translates as “death by overwork” and is estimated to claim 200 workers every year.

That’s not what we’re going for here. I don’t want you to swing from procrastination all the way to dangerous obsession.

The key is to find a comfortably challenging place between procrastination and obsession. A place that will empower you to get things done and still enjoy your life. To take action with your idea.

What would you create if money didn’t need to be involved?

What’s something you just feel you need to get out into the world? What is something you can’t stop thinking about?

We all have bills to pay, but we all also spend hours wasting time. Watching TV. Reading random articles on the Internet. Reading every book by Seth Godin. Scrolling through social media feed after social media feed. Every single person, myself included, has the extra time to create the thing we can’t stop thinking about.

What people want: To make money doing what they love.

What people don't want: To do the work that it takes.

— Jason Zook (@jasondoesstuff) May 9, 2016

You’ll know when your idea is good enough

How? You’ll stop having so much time to read articles like this one. You’ll fall behind on your favorite podcast. Heck, you may even miss hitting inbox zero for a few days/weeks.

But when your idea is good enough, it will demand your time. Not all of it, because your idea wants you to have a life, too. But a lot of your time. And when your idea is good enough, the time you invest will be rewarded.