[Tweet “One idea brought to fruition is worth 1000 in idea purgatory.”]
I am so pleased right now. A moment ago, I tried a new plug-in called “Click to Tweet” for my blog. And as you can see from the Tweet invitation above, it worked. When I installed the plug-in, I was taking a chance it would work and would add value to my blogposts. I had known about the plug-in for about two months, but since I had never sent a tweet in my life and since tweeting seemed like a language model for aliens to me, I knew I could sit on this idea for a while. I say this all to demonstrate in a live-action blogging kind of way, that one idea you put on the ground, or in action, is worth 1000 of the kind that are swimming around, lost in your head. And so, now you understand how my first tweet was born.
But I mention this little dramatic scene also to emphasize the importance of trying out what you don't know for sure. This may mean your ideas for a theme for your final essay, ideas for launching a blog or a business, ideas for changing your daily routine or your Procrastination habits. Your ideas about anything.
I looked up the word purgatory in Urban Dictionary and learned a few interesting things. First, purgatory is understood as “[a] place between Heaven and Hell, where the soul is not bad enough to be sent to an eternity of damnation in Hell, but not good enough to go to Heaven.” Other understandings of the term include: (1) being “stuck in limbo,” but wanting to escape, (2) “a place of eternal waiting,” and (3) a confusing mix of “correct or wrong or both.” I came up with the concept of idea purgatory because I wanted to capture the back-and-forth, mental pacing we can do when we have different ideas in our head. Nobody knows about these ideas. We ourselves barely know about them because they are just inklings and twinklings of what we are envisioning. I also wanted to capture the sense of torment we can experience when our ideas are lying in waiting too long. Oftentimes ideas do not get better just because we are waiting for them to improve. In fact, the longer we wait, the harder it becomes to tell if the ideas are good or bad. Ideas very often get better when we stop waiting, break through our frustration, and take them to another level.
Ideas get really exciting when we act on them and see where they take us. Or they fall flat and make us feel…eh. Either way, we benefit from the knowledge the actual experience gives us. Just to recap what the benefits of getting out of idea purgatory are:
- your mind becomes clear of the need to perfect the idea
- your mind becomes clear of the need to act on the idea
- your mind becomes open to new ideas generated by the idea you put into action
- your adventurous and creative spirit is reinforced and encouraged
So, try to take one of your ideas out of idea purgatory today. And if you are up for it, please tweet the tweet in the tweet box above so I can begin to learn how tweeting actually works. That is absolutely the weirdest sentence I have ever composed in my life. Knew this was for aliens. I look forward to connecting with you via the little bird soon.
How did your first tweet get off the ground? Please feel free to share your story of trying a new idea out by leaving a reply here.
