How to Pick Your Best Idea (Especially If You Suffer from Idea Overload!)

“It’s not about ideas. It’s about making ideas happen.” ~Scott Belsky In virtually every human pursuit, from personal growth to the arts to business, ideas and the execution of those ideas is what drives us forward. And when it comes to ideas, there are basically two kinds of people: Those who struggle to come up with what feels like good ideas Those gifted with a ton of ideas, but who struggle to pick the right idea to pursue And because struggling stinks, the good news is that no matter which of these two camps you’re from, what follows can help you. As for me, I come from camp #2. Ideas come to me in waves, and when the waves hit they’re like tsunamis. I’ve got the debris—dozens of notebooks and countless sticky notes, napkins, even birch bark with my barely legible notes about the idea on them—stuffed in manila envelopes to prove it. My problem, however, used to be that when it came time to work on a new thing—in my case a new article, video, book, or business, for example—I’d review all my ideas and feel… CONFUSED AND OVERWHELMED. Because there were actually many ideas scribbled in my notebooks and stuffed in my manila envelopes that were good. And how on earth do I pick just one idea? Especially if I was going to be investing significant amounts of my time and energy into it. Sometimes this overwhelm led to my inertia. Walking away entirely and not getting anything done for hours, days, even weeks on a few occasions because I was stifled by the choices. More often, this overwhelm lead to me choosing something, starting it, then abandoning it, because this other idea actually seemed better after all. Until I’d abandon that, too, for the next better idea. And so on. If ideas that I started but never finished were worth money, I’d be a billionaire. Ugh. I finally realized I had to step back and figure out the healthiest approach to pick the right ideas to pursue. And to make a really long story short (a story involving extensive research, lots of trial and error, journeys to wizards in far-off lands, fighting ogres, and more), here’s what I discovered. It’s Not Just About What You’re Good at or What You Know  When it comes to choosing the best ideas to pursue, some common advice is to pick what you’re good at or know about. And okay, that’s well-intentioned. However, I’ll bet you’re good at a lot of things. Just like I’m good at a lot of things. For example, I am good at showering, arguing with customer service agents, and carrying many bags of groceries from the car at one time (it’s an ongoing dangerous quest of mine to try to carry them all at once no matter how many there are). I’ll also bet that, like me, you could become knowledgeable about and good at other things, with a little to [...]