Getting An Idea Over The Line

This week will look at the importance of persistence, especially when working on an idea and getting it over the line.

Different to the previous newsletter, about starting something new.

How many times have you had a new idea, put it into to action and then after a certain amount of time. Just stopped working on it, because the results were not coming as quickly as you would have liked.

I am sure we have all been there in the past. Well this is for those of us, who maybe in the middle of an idea and beginning to lose momentum, or enthusiasm for it.

For myself, the personal example is going to be around reading books. Those of you whom have read any of our other newsletters, will have notice there is always a quote or reference to a book, related to the topic of the newsletter. Books which I have read out of personal and professional interest, yet were not part of any course being studied.

They have only just become more of an interest, a hobby in fact, over the last few years. Going from casually reading, maybe a book or two a year. Where now, I can read a book or two within ten days. However, there have been times where the default button was nearly pressed and, a book might not be finished for a couple of months or longer. Until the information from the pages, began to leak into both my personal and professional conversations.

Going back to the start of this new hobby of reading so many books, covering such a wide range of topics. Originally came from a personal challenge, to broaden my horizons, far and beyond any of the academic and professional barriers I had put up over the years. However, something else began to happen, which was most people in my circle did not read these books either. Leaving me unable to discuss them at length, bounces ideas around or gain in person recommendations for future reads.

One such book, is called The Lean Startup by Eric Ries (2011), where a model was produced called the Build-Measure-Learn Feedback Loop (p.75). Using this model, I started to access which books were most likely to be used from a, personal or professional context and then decide future reads based on the feedback. This encouraged me to persist in reading more, as well as provided a focus on which subjects to focus on or become a little more casual with.

An additional book used to provide weight for this weeks newsletter is called, The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell (2000) which is made up several real life stories, consisting of individuals or business ideas going over the tipping point. "The Tipping Point is the moment critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point." If I had not kept on reading, used the Build-Measure-Learn Feedback Loop, this newsletter would not have began, The Power of Five which is a positive communication tool I developed in 2019 and the Traffic Light Stress Management System. Originally introduced to a client in 2017, later supported by academic literature in 2021, may never have come to light. Both of the tools are now begin used within two different organisations, to good affect for those taking them back to use in their workplace.

These were never my intention, there was no a plan to write a weekly newsletter or developing two theoretical models, one of which had been trademarked. Yet here we are.

What ideas do you have which are being worked on and, just need a little more encouragement to see them through? Maybe you have a friend or work colleague, in a similar boat and needs to hear about the tipping point which is just around the corner.

Thank you again for reading this weeks newsletter, we hope you found it useful and thought provoking. Please leave any comments below, of ideas you are working on or examples of yours which have gone over the tipping point. Do not forget to subscribe and also go back to read our previous weeks newsletters. Until next time, we hope you have a productive week and feel free to check out my LinkedIn profile and website at, www.activelisteningforwellbeing.com.