Phew! This May experiment is over.
One month ago I posted some thoughts on cleanin out my ideas closet.The purpose with this challenge to myself was to get rid of my huge to-blog-list over one month, instead of slowly posting when I “had time” to do it.
I did get rid of most of the items on my list. But of course this exercise in rapid blogging made me have other, fresh ideas, which ended up in my to-blog-list for the future as well.
To put your ideas out of your inner sphere and into the world is a never-ending quest. But I think it’s very important that we do it and stop keeping ideas to ourselves. Here are some reasons why:
1.Vulnerability
The earlier you share an idea, the more vulnerable you feel. And feeling vulnerable is good as we know from Brene Brown’s TED talk The Power of Vulnerability.
2. Trust
The earlier you share an idea, the more you let others into your mind and give them access to your self. This will hopefully break down some barriers and lead to trust.
3. Support
The earlier you share an idea, the earlier others can help you.
4. Share
The earlier you share an idea, the earlier others can steal and remix your ideas, which is good.
5. Innovation
The earlier you share an idea, the more you learn and get used to releasing things into the world that are not perfect. As my good friend Juan says; “perfection is the enemy of innovation”. This experiment has taught me that it’s ok to release half-baked ideas early.
6. Speed
I write faster after this month. I don’t know why. Perhaps it’s because I have learned to write without thinking so much (too much thinking is not good for writing), or perhaps it’s because I didn’t have time to care much about what others thought.
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Some other learnings from this experiment:
- I started with the intention to post once a day, but this was too hard. This was inspired by a similar challenge that some friends of mine participated in a couple of years ago. Apparently they didn’t manage to post every day either. It is quite ok in the beginning, but after a couple of weeks it’s hard with work, family, weekends and life in general. You need a break some days. So therefore – if I’ll ever do this again – I’ll say that I’ll post 30 posts in a month or something… I published 22 posts this time, which I’m happy with for a first time.
- The stats and social media attention I got for some of the posts were much bigger than for others. The big hit during the month was Serendipity is the New Black – a post I had no idea would be popular. There were many other posts, which I found more original and interesting myself, and had thought would generate more hits. This is good to know.
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To summarize, I can recommend this experiment. My ideas closet is cleaner and my mind is clearer. Now I’ll be quiet for a month ;)
