Evolving Ideas: From Dreams to Results
This is Part 2 in a series of posts on turning dreams into reality. Because there are established techniques for transforming thoughts into results.
The creative process is not some esoteric “secret” where the universe conspires to manifest whatever you think about.
Nevertheless, here you’ll find a practical and powerful set of tools for making reality from your dreams.
Dreams to Results: The Creative Process
Regardless of the topic, an effective creative process will have these parts:
- Clarify
- Ideate
- Develop
- Implement
- (Repeat & Refine)
But it’s not about going through these steps once and calling it good. Practical ideas have to evolve because they have to be able to stand the test of time in the real world.
We can never know the best possible solution by just thinking about it. Because we can’t know where our current ideas will come up short until we put them to the test.
Dream, Capture, Experiment, Reflect, Repeat
For example, when you make the move from dreams to results, you start with nothing more than an idea in your mind.
1) It’s vague and general.
It’s hard to imagine specific details or how things might look in real life because it’s just in your imagination.
2) Then you start to write things down and come up with some possibilities. They look promising but you don’t know if they will work yet. So you choose one to work on and start taking action.
3) As you put the idea to use, it works a little, but breaks down in places. Parts of it flow, but others don’t. So you’ve got to go back to the drawing board.
4) Building on what worked and leaving out what didn’t, you brainstorm another round. Then take the best new ideas, and get back to work.
You put something new together. And it works better this time, but it’s still not perfect.
Or maybe it works but not as well as you’d hoped…. So back to the drawing board.
5) Each time you repeat the process, you’re building off of the foundation that you created previously. So each new iteration is moving upwards, closing in on the dream you first envisioned.
But since you actually created something in the first round, you have something to work with. Your results are tangible. You’ve reached a legitimate checkpoint and have saved your results.
But What if It’s Perfect?
For the sake of argument, let’s say you do implement a perfect solution on the first try (however unlikely).
Then you can just forget about that whole pesky processes of repeating and refining….. right?
Wrong: because even if something works now, that doesn’t mean it will suit your needs for all eternity. Even the wheel has evolved to fit our changing needs.
Change is the only constant in this universe:
Conditions change, needs change, desires change, health changes, and your dreams will change too.
The only thing you can count on in a changing universe is your ability to adapt. That’s what this Creative Process is all about.
It’s about having the tools and the mindset to get back to the drawing board so you always have the power to move on to Solution 2.0… and eventually 12.3.
Stop Thinking; Start Experimenting
Probably the biggest hang up for turning dreams to results (certainly for me) is doing too much thinking and not enough experimenting.
People are afraid that their first attempt won’t actually work. So they just keep thinking about it.
This mindset will leave you planning forever and will get you nowhere.
One key to making dreams come true is to get to the experimentation stage and actually try things out. You don’t have to know what you’re doing to get results.
A Key to Success: Fail Fast
If your first attempt isn’t going to work, then it’s better to find out quickly. That way you can move on to a more fruitful 2nd, 3rd, 4th…10th attempt. Because you won’t know if something is working until you actually try it.
Each attempt moves you up the spiral, narrowing in on something that will work.
What’s Your Greatest Failure for Success
When I first started writing, I literally put over 100,000 words down in word processing folders locked deep in my computer. I would then talk about the ideas to my closest friends.
They would tell me, “ya, it’s good,” and “wow, you’re working really hard, great job.” But no one wanted to read any of it. It tooks months for me to actually put ideas out there into the public domain. And surprise surprise, no one wanted to read any of it. It was dense, and thick. (Even I didn’t want to go through it to edit it).
It wasn’t until I started getting ideas out there and getting real world feedback that I started actually making improvements.
I wish I would have sent those first crappy writing pieces out sooner. Then maybe I’d be ahead of the curve now. But you live, you learn.
When is a time you’ve failed and it helped lead to success down the road? Share in the comments below.
Until next time, keep rockin’ it and make every day count.
