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: Staying Grounded When You’re on The Top

The top. What does it look like to you? Is it a picturesque lifestyle that can be described in one sentence? One word? Does the top signify smooth sailing, carefree spending and minions (not of the Universal Pictures variety, of course)? Does the top look closer than ever to you?

Does the top signify success to you? Here're six tips on how to stay grounded and be yourself as you reach for the top this new year…

•    Remember the people who helped get you there – It’s never a one-man show. There are people who believed in you, pushed you, pulled you…did whatever you required of them so you could be the best version of King/Queen of your hill.

•    Constantly work towards another goal – While Journey may have beseeched us to never stop believing, it’s important to never stop achieving. At one point or another, we set up a goal for ourselves. Once achieving that, it’s integral not to stop there. Success is a journey. It’s not just an object or milestone. It’s progression. It’s different for everyone, but it doesn’t stay if we don’t keep moving.

•    Create community togetherness – Find a second passion. Pursue something that feeds your heart while feeding the community and wellbeing of others. If you see a need, resolve it. Too big for you to fix? Collaborate with others who can help and you’ll plant roots deep enough that when you get to the top you have a lot of strength to pull from.

•    Make room for others at the top – The things you do today, right now, heavily impact everyone around you. It’s not just engineers and inventors who influence the next generation’s trends; it’s the entrepreneurs and risk-takers. The risks you take, others will take after you. Ensure you are making not just bold decisions but decisions that will encourage the next generation to seek a path that has purpose.

•    Live [and love] the everyday – Don’t get caught up in the big picture so much that you miss out in the little details that matter most to living. Whether it’s breakfast, family vacations, movie nights, sports kick-off traditions, missing out on the downtime and watching others grow alongside you devalues the momentous rise of your own, making it much less significant.

•    Reevaluate your top – Plans change. You can recalculate, reroute and make U-turns if you must, so long as they align with the above statements and fulfill your vision and heart. Give yourself a gut check every few years to ensure you are doing what you need to do to stay on the journey of success and find your way to your own version of the top. The top isn’t higher than everybody else. The top is beating your self-doubts and reaching many milestones.

Here’s to a happy and safe climb!  

-The Green Couch