In a world still in the grips of one of the worst pandemics in history, good ideas are needed more than ever before to help people, businesses and continents to recover and thrive again.
But, for ideas to flourish, they need the right conditions.
So, how can you get the most out of your ideas? As you will discover, the answer may be a lot simpler than you think.
Plant the seed
To get anything out of an idea, you need to plant it first. Just as a seed needs to be planted in good soil to allow it to grow, an idea needs to be planted somewhere fertile, that will allow it to grow too.
That could mean creating a plan to develop and map out your idea, or setting up a meeting with others to discuss how your idea can take shape. But if you don’t think about or discuss how your idea can be developed, you will never provide the idea with any foundation from which it can grow.
Choosing the ‘soil’ in which you want to plant your seed of an idea is crucial. If your idea plan/map doesn’t illustrate what you want to achieve, then it may prove difficult to get it off the ground. Similarly, if you entrust others to help you with your idea, it’s important to choose people who will be willing to listen to you and give you enough time and support to give your idea a start in life. Failure to do this may leave you holding the drawing board indefinitely.
Give the idea water, air and light
Once a seed has been planted, it needs water, air and light to help it to grow. But what about an idea? Can you just let it do its own thing?
If you want an idea to turn into something productive, then you will need time, thought and action to provide the idea with the right stimulus to grow. An idea is unlikely to go anywhere unless you give it the impetus to move.
The amount of water and quality of air and light can all affect how well a seed grows and the same can be said for an idea. Ensuring that an idea is given enough time to develop in the early stages is crucial. But time alone often isn’t enough and the quality of thought and action dedicated to nurturing an idea in its early stages is equally important.
Just as a hard frost may kill a young seedling, leaving an idea unattended for too long in its early stages may result in similar consequences.
Allow it to grow
Once an idea has been nurtured through its early stages, it should be allowed to grow naturally.
When developing ideas, there can be a temptation to overthink them or to exert too much control over their direction. However, both of these are unhelpful and unnatural habits, which restrict an idea from growing organically.
Just as a gardener needs to step away a little from a seed once planted and established to let it get on with the growing process, those tasked with growing an idea require the freedom to do so. Without freedom, neither plants, ideas or humans can grow to their full potential.
Let it blossom
Each spring, dormant trees burst into flower through a completely natural cycle. In turn, that blossom starts the process of fruit production.
If you want your idea to start bearing fruit, then you have to allow it to blossom. Dismissing an idea before giving it a chance to show whether it can bear fruit, may ultimately deny you the rewards of your work.
In a fast paced world, it can be very easy early on to criticise an idea, or dismiss it as a non-starter, but if you never give ideas the chance to bear fruit, then you will ultimately always reap a poor harvest.
Developing the attitude of an arable farmer
People sometimes struggle to come up with new ideas, but idea-droughts can often be the result of never allowing other ideas the chance to develop in the first place (whether your own ideas or those of other people).
An idea is a creative natural spark and just like a seed, to allow it to grow into something healthy requires the right level of respect. To become a great farmer, you need to develop the right attitude to looking after your crops. To harvest the most out of an idea, it is the quality of attitude towards that idea that will determine whether it ultimately bears any fruit.
Just as a good workman never blames his tools, if you’re struggling to come up with new ideas, perhaps think about some of the ideas that you may have dismissed or thrown away in the past. By not blaming the idea, but approaching it with a different attitude, you may be surprised by how well it grows.