Have you ever had an impulse to act on an idea, that your mind pulled the emergency brake on a few seconds later?

I know I’ve had a ton of ideas that I’ve just thrown out because either they seemed to difficult, it took too much time… or sadly because there were areas in my life where I was convinced things were never going to change, so I gave up trying.

I believed the lie that I was fine and it killed my ideas.

You Have Life Changing Ideas for a Reason

You are totally and completely incomparable.

In fact, scientists have calculated the odds of you being born. They took into account all the wars, natural disasters and the odds of you being born at the moment in time you were born – to the parents withe the DNA structures you have – is 1:4 hundred trillion.

You’re not fine. You’re fantastic!

You have life changing ideas for a reason.

Yet, if you’re like me, all day long we have ideas that could change our life – and the world – that would change how we feel.

These amazing ideas bubble up inside of us, sort of like ping pong balls going back and forth across the table. But almost every time we have an idea we turn it off.

It’s sort of like hitting the snooze alarm on our lives.

Here’s the truth. In any area of your life that you want to change, there’s one fact you need to know. You are never going to feel like it.

A great example is losing weight. No one who wants to lose weight ever feels like going on a diet, but if they want the results they’ll force themselves to eat healthier and go on those walks.

It’s simple to get what you want… but it’s not easy.

You have to force yourself.

Listening for signals…

When you feel stuck or dissatisfied in your life there’s a signal. It’s not a signal that your life is broken, instead it’s a signal that one of your basic needs is not being met.

Your need for exploration and growth. Everything about your body grows throughout your life. Your mind and soul also need to grow. The only way you’ll get it is by forcing yourself to be uncomfortable.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve realized I need to force myself to get out of my own head, because most of the time my feelings are lying to me.

A big change means rethinking how we feel about ourselves and our work…

Any real big change in our lives requires a change in how we think. We need an about-face in how we think about ourselves and our work. Shaping what we believe about ourselves equips us to move toward what we hope to achieve.

To change how we think, we must begin by giving ourselves permission to explore and make mistakes. Overnight successes aren’t real. It takes work and time to pursue what you love to do.

If you love to write, pursuing your calling, is not an easy process.

In fact, it can be one of the hardest, and most frustrating things you’ll ever do. When I first began writing a few years ago, I struggled a lot. I made a lot of mistakes(still do) and was often lonely and discouraged. I’m still affected by discouragement and the sting of failure.

The bad news? Writing is hard work. In the middle of the sometimes troublesome act of writing, there’s something rewarding  to hold on to. Despite how hard it is to take steps toward your writing dream, the good news is that it’s worth it.

The process can be hard and downright scary, yet I don’t regret starting this journey of writing. Because I would rather write words that matter – even though it’s scary – than do anything else that would be easier.

Writing the words you love, is about pushing yourself everyday to get better.

Choose to grow and explore

You can keep saying some day I’ll write this book someday or you can choose to grow. You can choose to find ways to explore new ideas and write everyday.

The only way you’ll grow is by forcing yourself to be uncomfortable. Don’t tell yourself not writing your book, blog or your short story is fine. It’s not.

In Mel Robbin’s book Stop Saying You’re Fine: Discover a More Powerful You, she says to stop telling yourself you are fine. Your feelings are messing with you. If you listen to how you feel when it comes to what you want you will not get it because you’ll never feel like it.

It’s the first five seconds, when you first have the impulse, that you need to act on your ideas. If you wait, your brain pulls the emergency break and you won’t do it.

I’m guilty of doing that way too often. I’ve stopped ideas I’ve had an impulse to write, because of fear or because I felt overwhelmed. I’ve regretted that.

I’ve decided to start to act faster on ideas that pop into my head.

You see, the problem with most of us isn’t a lack of ideas, the problem is that the ideas are being killed before you can act on them.

So begin the practice of acting on your ideas today. If you’ve had a blog, short story or book idea, start it now. Even if all you write is 500 words, that’s a win.

Stop telling yourself you’re fine. Rather tell yourself, you are fantastic.

See the ideas that bubble up inside you as possibilities. Don’t pull the emergency brake any longer… instead act on your impulse.

Have you ever stopped an idea in its tracks before you could explore it? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.