Ideation & Execution

Each stage requires a different mindset, and if anything, a different location.

In every individual's life, there comes an ideation stage, where they plot and plan the next steps in their personal or professional lives. This chapter of their lives requires them to consider the minutest of details to make the most of what they want to achieve and how they will go about doing it. It may take days, weeks, months, and sometimes years, but it is crucial to have a blueprint of the path to your destination. Never mind the naysayers who laugh at your goals; if you've believed in yourself, there's not much stopping you from grabbing the right opportunities when they present themselves.

What follows is the hard-nosed, rigorous, and tiresome execution stage. Sticking to your plan diligently, correcting courses if necessary, and making any changes if unforeseen situations arise. It requires a routine that disallows your vision from altering because of the world's distractions. Doing the same thing over and over again might seem redundant, but it's essential if you trust that a bigger prize awaits at the end of the labor.

It isn't wise, however, to assume that the ideation and execution process can occur in the same place with the same mindset.

Routine automates mundane tasks, trading consistency for creativity. When you put the blinders on, you're blocked from the rest of the world, focusing solely on your goals. You're not interested in what nature has to offer or in the marvels of humankind but in what you're here to do, to make a mark on the world. The passion that your purpose brings suffices and compensates for everything you're missing out on while pursuing something more significant for yourself.

Ideation, however, requires creativity, alertness, and an open mindset, which a routine could never give you. To free the creativity held captive while you were implementing your plans, you must let go of consistency. One way of getting a headstart is by traveling to a new place, where learning, adapting, and engrossing yourself take precedence over completing every little task on your to-do list.

There, your senses heighten, and once that happens, you can see the world around you and your future more precisely than if you were to stay at home or in your city. You meet new people, interact with them, generate ideas that you didn't know were possible, and in the process, widen your horizon to more unique opportunities. There's a reason why some people travel to unexplored territories and end up staying there for the rest of their lives.

Not many are satisfied with the knowledge they possess. True happiness lies in the pursuit of wisdom, and only the wise can confirm that they're anything but wise.

The nakedness of being a stranger in a place where they don't even speak the same language as you instills a sense of being reborn; in some ways, it is a fresh start that you might not even know you needed. There, you realize that any day that passes without you learning something new is wasted.

You mustn't pride yourselves over knowledge, for you know so little of everything. Even an expert is a newcomer in another field. I've resented the words, 'I don't know' for a long time, but if they've taught me anything, the world is craving to help those who don't know, maybe in an even better way than you would've learned.

Ideation is your vision, and execution, your mission. If the sentences used to describe each of these terms differ, what makes you think you can come up with them sitting in the same place?

Think about it.

Cheers,

Aamer