Project: How to Capture Your Ideas and Capitalize on Them

The brain is an organ with mysteries and untapped resources. But it’s also like a muscle. The more we use it, the more we exercise it, the stronger it becomes.

But no matter how much we expand the fortitude of our brain, if we exercise it, if we push it to its limits but never harvest from its bounty, why then put ourselves through the rigorous reps – whatever method we use to gain information – reading, traveling, seminars. We are absorbing; our brain is expanded but our mind is constricted with potential.

Your brain is big. Your ideas are too. The next time one pops in your mind let it pop on paper:

Write it down. Immediately. You always think you’ll remember it in an hour, in a day. You won’t. Even if you take notes on an app on your phone, don’t trust your battery. Try to carry around a pocket-sized notebook and keep one on your night stand, too. Not only is jotting down the idea cathartic, but equally so getting it down on a piece of tangible paper.

Give yourself a deadline. Once you express your big idea, break it down in bullet points or baby steps. Then give yourself a deadline to realistically accomplish the first task. The big idea is a beautiful picture but the more you face it the more you’ll be struck by analysis paralysis. Therefore, it’s vital you evaluate the project, your schedule and your capabilities. And then take in consideration this is a big idea – so you need to double dose your risk-taking factor.

Have an accountability partner. It’s okay if you don’t have a prototype, a slideshow presentation, a logo or a business plan put together. You can share as much or little as possible. Just have someone you trust to keep you on track.

Be open to detours. Whether you’re off schedule, flying off the handle because you can’t take one more failed attempt or people giving your idea the brush off, don’t give up on your idea. Just be open to taking your idea to another level. Reevaluate. Be open to suggestions while always being true to your idea.

Maybe reading this has given you an idea. Untapped what you thought others might not understand. And they won’t. Because it’s YOUR idea. So it’s your job to help them understand. To bring it to life. To give it a name, a personality.

-The Green Couch

Project: The Root Word

Few are the days we discard the alarm clock, trusting the international anticipation of tomorrow and euphoria of life to keep us awake.

But as December 31^st blends into January 1^st, as one day ends and another begins marking not just another month but a new year, we recognize a season of hope. Renewal. The season of resolutions.

We all have succumbed to thinking them. Since childhood we’ve been conditioned to bettering our lives and it all starts on the first day of each year. To break a bad habit. Start a good one. Lost five pounds. Try five new things. Floss every day. Quit smoking. End a relationship. We resolve to bridge the gap between where we are and where the happiness resides outside of our reach.

Personal or professional, resolutions don’t just have to take place in January. The most important factor is that they solve an issue.

If we slow down and enunciate the word that trips us up emotionally, we’d recognize that resolution sounds a lot like solution. That’s because the word is a derivative of solution.

Too often when we think of resolutions we set before us new hurdles, thus new problems to solve.

This year, we challenge you to follow this five step plan to fulfill your 2016 dream, to successfully SOLVING your resolutions:

1) Identify: Realize what the problem is – what it is you want to change.

2) Analyze: Create a custom, tangible plan with bite size manageable steps

3) Pace: Pace yourself. One of the reasons people often give up on their resolutions is because they forget it should be more than a marathon. It’s a lifestyle, it’s long-run. If your goal was to floss every day but you kicked off by flossing five times in one day – overkill will kill your momentum.

4) Forgive: If you skip a day, two or three, pick yourself back up and keep going. The worse thing you can do after inadvertently missing day five of mark, is purposely miss day six because you think you’ve lost too much momentum or failed the system.

5) Reward: Incentivize yourself. Don’t wait until the end of the year to determine if you achieved your maximum potential. Highlight your calendar with several future dated celebratory milestones to benchmark your success. Everyone needs a little sticks and carrots to keep them going. Figure out what your carrot is and keep it forefront wherever you are.

- The Green Couch

Project: Failing Forward

Whenever we interview one of the Risk-Takers on The Green Couch and their story unfolds, their definition of success slowly comes to the surface. Many of which have boldly stated, there is no such thing as an overnight success.

If anyone would tell you otherwise, they either have not found success or they have encountered one long, treacherous night. A night more extensive than the average 8 hours; perhaps one of 8 years?

From the concept to the creation, to the failed experiments and finally the product or service, more than a blink of an eye has passed. Moreover, while some of your experimental components may have fallen into place unintentionally to your benefit, none of your hard work was an accident.

The further you pursue your vision, the further chances you have of meeting it face-to-face.

But what happens when those failed experiments turn your trajectory off course? How can we keep the momentum going, so even though we won’t achieve overnight success we can fail forward?

It won’t be easy, but ask any of our Risk-Takers, and they’ll tell you the ongoing rewards are worth the ongoing time they “serve.”

• Find a mentor: It doesn’t have to be someone in your industry; just someone wiser, someone more experienced who is willing to sit down with you over lunch every few weeks to talk shop and life.

• Ease up on yourself: Remember, it’s okay to be wrong. If you’re always right, you’re not doing the right thing in life. Never settle for something that doesn’t challenge you.

• Set up a schedule: Whether it’s every day or every week, set an alert/alarm/reminder for you, dedicated to specific projects that need your time that are lacking and need more focus.

• Embrace change: In the absence of change is the absence of innovation. Use every roadblock, technical upgrade or trend as an opportunity to stretch your imagination. 

• Get street smart: If you can’t afford to travel or time away, invest in a good book to broaden your mind and refresh your senses. A new perspective from an unknown source always helps see life from outside the city limits. 

• Understand what failure is: Failure isn’t the absence of success. It isn’t meeting your expectations, deadlines or the status quo. Failure is not trying.

• Understand what failing forward is: Failing forward is using every “No” as, No way am I going to let this stop me from succeeding and reaching my goal. This failure showed me how not to do it – not that I shouldn’t do it.”

Fail forward, fail onward!

The Green Couch