Tag: good ideas

Good ideas need your brilliance

February 22, 2011 / / 11 Comments

Have you seen Toy Story?

Did you know that they have authentic replicas of the movie characters that are built to scale…looking exactly like that you saw on the movie, even down the smallest detail?  They’re a replica of the exact size of the characters you saw on the movie!

But with no imagination, they’re just a plain, lifeless doll.

With the imagination of a child, they become Woody…or Buzz Lightyear…or Jessie.

Good ideas

And the same is true with good ideas.  We go to conferences, read books, interact with broad audiences, dialog on social media, and get tons of ideas.  But until we put life to them, until we contextualize them, until we bring them into our systems, they’re lifeless.

A great idea looks cool…especially marketed in a slick package.  But it’s a different game altogether once you get it out of that package.  Because it takes your creativity, your insight, and your wisdom to put that idea into action.

That’s why copying another ministry doesn’t work.  Because it takes your effort to change, tweak, and contextualize the idea to make it function in your ministry.  If you try copying someone else, even though it may have sounded awesome when you heard it the first time, all you’ve really got is a dead, lifeless child’s toy that’ll sit on your desk.

But with your brilliance, the idea can come to life.

Where do you get your good ideas?  Books?  Conferences?  Conversations?


When was the last time you put one of those ideas to life?

 

Time to cut bait

February 1, 2011 / / 4 Comments

I’m not a fisherman, but I’ve been fishing.  Which makes me an expert, right?

Sometimes there are times when you just need to cut bait and move on.  Maybe you’ve snagged some driftwood.  Maybe the fish isn’t worth it.  Maybe your hook is stuck in the mud.  And you could fight and fight and fight…but you’re not going to drag in the bottom of the lake.  If you’re stuck, cut bait and move on.

Let it go

We often need to do this with our ideas, too…even the good ones.  We get so personally invested in them that we hold on as if our lives are at stake.  We need to know what’s worth fighting for, what ideas are so valuable that we will reel them in at all costs.  And what ideas can be released.

There comes a time when holding on to that idea, that project, that program…that it begins to drag you into the water with it.  Your idea has lost traction, the program isn’t accomplishing what you wanted it to, and the project is sapping all of your effort with very little result to show for it.

We need to remember that it’s okay to cut bait sometimes.    Cutting bait means you’re done with that line.  With that area of the pond.  With that fish.

But it doesn’t mean that you’re done fishing.

What ‘good idea’ have you held on to for too long?

Is there one you can let go of today?

Is there a program that you can let sink?

 

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