What to do with a BIG idea?

Big ideas are exhilarating. But, big ideas can be overwhelming too.

What do you do when you get a BIG idea? Tell someone? Write some notes? Start working on the idea? I suppose your answer might have a lot to do with your idea and who it affects or who it benefits.

BIG ideas, like any project, cannot be implemented immediately or just be done. I am a David Allen, Getting Things Done sort of guy. You can't do a project. You can only do the 'next action' on your list of actions to move it along. Yes, that is a simple statement and it IS a simple thing to do. And yet, often we don't do things that way. We fiddle and we fidget and we move about like a cow eating grass - hoping, almost begging, for lightning to strike and magic to happen. It won't.

The next time a BIG idea comes your way, first write it down and then break it down. Figure out all the small steps you need to do just to explore it and then to do it. And to do that, repeat this question: What is the next action I need to do to move this along?

Best of all, you don't need software or a computer or anything else technological. All you need is the most flexible and powerful of planning tools - a pad of paper and pen.

Let the BIG ideas flow!