5 Questions to Ask Before Diving Into a New Idea

Today, we are going to talk about the five questions I asked myself when I have a new idea. Now, the reason that I wanted to talk about this with you guys is because as entrepreneurs, we are constantly being bombarded with new ways of doing things, new programs to join, new methods of putting yourself out there new social media networks, new tech things… it’s just it’s never-ending. Because of that, we can often find ourselves with these new ideas and it’s really important to know whether or not the idea is something that’s actually going to take you further down the path you want to go or if it’s just a distraction. I’ve created this list of questions to really just work through when you’re having a new idea. Now, I do want to say that this isn’t something that you want to do for small ideas. But for anything that’s really going to take some time, or something that is going to disrupt what you already have going on, or whatever goal that you’re already working towards. So it’s really good to just take a few minutes to answer these questions. Alot of times, you won’t even have to go through all of the questions, you will probably get to like the second one and be like, “No, this is something I don’t need to do right now.”

And the fun thing about this is it’s not saying you can’t do new things, it’s just making sure that they’re in alignment for you. And then also, if, if you should do it now or if you can do it later, or if you shouldn’t do it at all. So it’s not saying, “No, you can’t do it,” but “Is this the best time to do it?” So I am really, really excited to share these with you because I think they will be really helpful in preventing some of that shiny object syndrome and also helpful in helping you stay on course.

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Question 1: What inspired the idea?

So let’s get into the first question. Now question one is what inspired this idea? And with this question, you really want to ask yourself, because it’ll help you realize like, was it bright shiny object syndrome? Was it procrastination? Was it divine intervention? Was it something that and when I say bright, shiny object syndrome, just to kind of break this down a little bit more? Was it something that you saw someone doing on Instagram and you’re like, Oh, my God, it looks so cool. I want to do it too. Or procrastination. You’re like, Oh, well, if I really want to do this, this one task that aligns with my goal, I should totally do that too, because it’ll make the other thing better. And maybe it actually won’t make the other thing better. It’s just you trying to procrastinate either something that you are Afraid to do or something that is mundane, but needs to be done. I think that a lot of people find themselves in that situation where they don’t want to do a certain thing. So they find other things to do. So they’re still feeling productive. And they can say, Well, I didn’t have time because I could did this, this and this. But the truth of the matter is no, you had time you just found other things to use that time on. And then was a divine inspiration because quite frankly, you know that I go woo sometimes. And sometimes you really do just have something that feels so aligned, pop into your mind. And that’s usually going to be with a little bit different than the shiny object syndrome is it’s not that you saw it somewhere else. It’s that you were trying to sleep one night and that idea came to you and you’re like, holy crap, like, this is something that I really want to do. And you can feel it in your belly, how excited you get around it. So definitely, if you felt like it was divine inspiration, and it wasn’t shiny object syndrome or procrastination, and of course, you can take the question is what inspired this idea even further?

Question 2: Does it align with my current goal?

This is important because when you set a goal, you really need to give it time to grow. And you really need to take the stepping stone actions that get you closer to it. Often when we have that new random ideas pop up, it can really be a deterrent from the thing that we say that we really, really want. And that may be again, another form of procrastination. So this is when you want to say, you know, when I think about the goal that I am super focused on right now, does this idea add to it? Or does it take away from it? Is it stopping me from getting this other goal accomplished? Or if it adds to it, Is it something that gets me to that goal faster? You want to ask yourself if it aligns with your current goal.

Question 3: Is this a right now goal?

The reason you want to ask yourself that is because it can feel really restrictive. If you’re working towards one thing and you feel like you can’t ever do anything else or listen to divine inspiration. So you can ask yourself, is this something that I need to do right now? Or is this something that I can do later? Is there any wiggle room there? Would it be better to do it later? Would it make more sense for you to just pump the brakes, keep it on the back burner and do it at another time, when you can really give it your all your whole focus versus splitting it between your primary goal and this new idea.

Question 2: How long will it take to implement and what is the time commitment for doing this?

How can I expect to see results? How will I know if it’s going well? This is really where you get into the nitty gritty. So you’ve decided that the goal or the idea is viable. But now you need to really look at what the lift is going to be, is it going to be a heavy lift? Is it going to be a light lift? Is it something that’s super small, or it may take you an afternoon to crank out, or it’s something that you’re going to need to spend time on every day for three weeks?

Question 5: What is the ultimate goal I hope to achieve by implementing this idea?

What am I hoping this idea is going to do for me? And you have to ask yourself, is it ego based strategy or passion? So when you look at the things that you’re going to say, “Okay, when this happens, I know that, that, that that I’ve reached that ultimate goal.” The thing about the ultimate goal is it can be inspired by ego, strategy or passion. And the inspiration will be different depending on who you are and what you want.

Gaining 10,000 Instagram followers may be strategy for one person while it’s only ego for another. You should try to do things for strategy and passion. Doing things for ego will never lead to lasting happiness.

Make sure that you’re being honest with yourself when you’re answering these questions and not trying to push it in the direction of getting basically a yes to go ahead and implement this idea right now. Because it’s what you want to do at the moment. We want to have flexibility in our businesses. That’s why we started our businesses. But we also know that some structure is going to allow for growth and scaling.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai