“Everything begins with an idea.”
– Earl Nightingale
Look around you right now.
What do you see?
Tables and chairs.
City buildings.
Cars passing on the road.
Glowing lights overhead.
Books stacked on your desk.
Windows.
Your computer.
Each and every one of these things began as an idea in someone’s head.
Literally, EVERYTHING that we see, touch, and hear in our human-made world was once a spark of an idea that was seen through to completion by a person who was tenacious enough to go after their idea.
It took millions of people and millions of ideas to mold the world we now live in.
And all of these ideas came from the same place—they all stem from the inexhaustible well of human creativity.
Which brings us to a profound question:
What ideas are lurking inside you?
What is it that you can contribute to the world to blend and build on the billions of ideas already floating out there?
In each of us lies the potential to conceive a concept that will change the world.
It doesn’t need to be a technological wonder that revolutionizes civilization either.
It can be a simple form of self-expression that brings joy to others, like a song, story, or painting.
Or it can be a civic-minded act that inspires others to foster a spirit of community.
You have two responsibilities if you want to contribute your ideas to the world.
- Recognize and nurture your ideas no matter how inconsequential they might seem. Ideas are seeds that need the waters of belief, effort, and persistence.
- Create an environment within yourself and your circle or network that welcomes and encourages the birth of new ideas.
As you go about your day, remember that EVERYTHING once began as a simple idea.
Don’t brush your ideas off just because they came to you while washing dishes or it seems too “dumb” to really matter. Great ideas don’t have to hit like meteors—subtle ripples count too.
So ask yourself, what is sitting just below the surface of your mind?
Open up, write your ideas down when they come to you, and keep chasing your dreams.