Create! As an Idea Addict, you are meant to create. You were created to innovate. When you are using your ideation powers the way you were intended to, others will be amazed. Creating is not optional for you. It is not a bonus. It is not the prize for having a wonderful mind. It is at the core of who you are and who you must be. You must create. It is not an extra. Idea Addicts must create. It is essential. Unlike extra, which can be good or bad, positive, somewhat positive or negative, when something is essential, it is always very good. Essential Whatever forms the core of…

An Idea Addict opens her eyes. Another idea if forming. She bounces out of bed, eager to record the latest in a string of life-changing ideas. Over the next few hours, the world stops. Ideation has begun. It will not be interrupted. She begins to expand her idea. Some of the details begin to form, but not too many. She begins to imagine the impact of her new idea. Lives are left never the same. People are thanking her. The planet is a better place to live. A few hours later, right in the middle of her high, she sees her husband. Full of excitement, she shares her idea. She…

The Striving Idea Addict is consumed by extra. When we strive as Idea Addicts, we find it incredibly difficult to focus. We are preoccupied with the extra in life. It is difficult for us to determine what is important and what is simply extra. We get anxious and overwhelmed with a lack of clarity. Sometimes this leads us to go in multiple directions. Sometimes it leads us to do nothing. The result is more anxiety, overwhelm and lack of clarity. We become paralyzed. So we try harder, spinning in place. Eventually we collapse under the pressure. How do we manage it all? What is really important? What is just extra?…

  Maybe you have experienced the rush of an amazing idea. It comes to you. It is perfect. You think about it. You think about it some more. It is not going away. Several days later, it is still on your mind. You must actually do this one. The energy it brings to your body. You are hooked. Then Monday morning comes. You have to go to work. There is no room for your big idea, or any big ideas here. Just get your job done. You go home. You are loved, maybe, but there is no time for ideas. Responsibilities mount. Commitments scream for first priority. Your friends, family…

“You cannot overestimate the unimportance of practically everything.” ~ Greg McKeown, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

“I have an idea.” This is my favorite phrase. I say it most days and I love to hear it almost as much as I enjoy saying it. In my life, ideas are a fixture. They form who I am and how I live. They impact those around me and give us all something to look forward to, something to dream about. I am an Idea Addict.  One of the problems I have, however, is that I have so many ideas. I cannot possibly do all of the things I dream about. It is a serious struggle. I will often record my ideas physically or digitally, while I ruminate on…

“Remember that you have only one soul; that you have only one death to die; that you have only one life, which is short and has to be lived by you alone; and that there is only one glory, which is eternal. If you do this, there will be many things about which you care nothing.” ~ Teresa of Avila