Stop Interrogating And Judging Your Ideas
On doubt, play, and protecting the bright new child of your idea
And one day, you will have a bright, beautiful, exciting idea that comes to join you, and almost as soon as it does, your doubt will come to the table to tell you that you’re not qualified enough to pull it off.
Then your perfectionism will come in and tell you that you don’t have the time and space to do it properly.
Your self-criticism will come in uninvited through the front door of your heart, followed closely by your anxiety, and talking over each other, they will tell you that your idea and you will fail, and that you will be laughed at and judged.
“You’re not ready.”
“This won’t amount to anything.”
“Other people are already doing this better than you.”
“Focus on getting a real job.”
“No one will understand this.”
“The time, the resources, the team, the skills…you don’t have what it takes.”
All of these voices will push and shove and try to sit at the head of the table of your heart — all because they are afraid of the bright new child of your idea who is now standing in the meadow patiently (for now), simply inviting all of you to take the first step, and to come outside to play.
Our relationship with our ideas reflects our relationship with ourselves, most specifically, our younger selves and the early fractures from that self that began to shape the human we are today. As grown-ups, our response to our ideas reflects to us the same pressure, perfectionism, and drive to succeed that we internalized from society at a young age.
We forget that our ideas are here first and foremost to invite us into a state of curiosity, expression, and play. In flexing our muscles of perfectionism and success, we have let the skill of being in flow with our innate internal genius atrophy.
And that’s what our ideas are — the random sparks, the things that you instinctually feel drawn to, the creative skills that you have — these sparks are the truest layer of you. They surface to help you shed everything that isn’t.
These ideas are asking you to return to the skills and presence that led you in the early years of your life, before your resume skills and fitting in strategies took over.
Skills like curiosity, unattachment to outcome, play, invention, experimentation, imagination, creativity — the rulers of the kingdom of childhood, the “nice to do when there’s time and the real adult work is done” ….the pursuits we were taught to relegate to “when there’s time,” once the real adult work is done.
Control and drive might have gotten you to the top, but learning to let go and relate is your greatest opportunity now.
Let’s also acknowledge that the simplicity of this does not imply ease. The skills we developed to succeed in the modern world are behaviours we’ve been practicing so long they’ve all but merged with our sense of self and sense of worth. To let go of them can feel like losing your identity. And nothing feels more threatening to a human than that.
Which is why the ideas feel so good and sparkly and enticing!
They’re shiny and inviting precisely because they know we must step out of the skin we’ve worn for a lifetime. We have to cross into unknown territory with only a spark to guide us.
But what I want you to remember in all of this is that your ideas are here to help you heal and to help you relate to yourself and your life in a more honest and aligned and expressed way.
Let them.
Let them and stop asking them to be perfect, fully formed, your ticket to success, and all the other things we expect that squash the unique brilliance of the ideas that come to us.
The real reason you aren’t further along isn’t because you lack talent. It’s because you’re trying to use control, urgency, and optimization to build something that requires curiosity, patience, and relationship.
The real reason you aren’t further along is because when the last idea came (and the 124395 before that) your response was:
How do I sell it?
How do I scale it?
Who else is out here doing this and how are they approaching it?
When is the best time to press go on this?
Now is not the right time to do this.
This is too different than anything else I offer
As you’re reading this, I’m sure you’re reminded of some of your own replies.
Here’s what you need to be saying instead:
This feels interesting!
Wouldnt it be cool if…..
This makes me think about………
What’s great about this is……..
This is perfect for me because…..
The first thing I want to do with this is…..
That result was interesting, what about if I try this?
And then go do that thing. Go play. Honour the childish innocence of the idea and use your adult skills to shepherd it into fuller expression — not to shrink it to fit the walls of the world.
If this stirred something in you — if you recognized your own table of doubt, or the meadow where your ideas are still patiently waiting — don’t just nod and move on. This is the work. Inside the paid community, I’m building a space where we practice relating to our ideas differently. We learn how to stop interrogating them and start listening to them. We build, experiment, refine, and move forward — without abandoning ourselves in the process. If you’re ready to take your ideas both more seriously and less seriously at the same time, I’d love to welcome you inside. It’s $7 a month, and with an annual subscription, I’m gifting you my 28-day audio series Reignite Your Life for free. It’s a series of daily reflections and practices designed to gently unhook you from all things hustle, performance, and urgency and help you shift your momentum toward a life that is filled with creativity, joy, rest, and meaning.