Scott Belsky wrote in Making Ideas Happen: “The best ideas are born and lost in isolation.” There’s so much to unpack in that tiny phrase. If you’re like me, I find that my “best ideas” come in the bathroom, or on the way into work. Or mo those “I can’t let myself forget” ideas come in like a flood right before closing your eyes at the end of a long day, preventing you from going to sleep? Scott’s right though, most of these moments are in isolation.
A large part of ideation is the ability to be fully present in the moment, allowing all the other distractions to fade away and let yourself be fully “here”. That’s why isolation allows for great ideas. It’s rarely a coffee shop for me, unless I can completely drown out every other distraction (which there are a mountain of distractions in any decent coffee shop.)
But there’s another part of that quote… lost in isolation.
We don’t do anything about the ideas that we have once we’ve removed the distraction. Rarely do we have a friend to process or brainstorm with on that random idea, because we’re alone. We don’t write them down, organize them or filter them out because we don’t realize the importance of doing that in the moment. We let them be exactly what they are… ideas; and ideas don’t naturally linger. They come and they go, like a cool breeze on a hot summer day.
[bctt tweet=”In isolation we have to intentionally capture our ideas, because Idea’s don’t naturally linger.”]
So the next time you’re in isolation and you have that eureka moment where a great idea comes to your mind, do something about it and write it down. Capture that idea, and don’t let it get away.
Lets empower our ideas to be born in isolation, not lost in those quiet focused places.
To read more from this incredible book by Scott Belsky, jump over to Amazon.
