You are wondering why every idea you create and think about, does not follow through to create the life or personal growth you want?

One of the most famous idea creators was Walt Disney, he  was so good at this concept that he didn't even realise how good he was. Till he went to explain it to his people and they struggled to follow and execute on their idea's using the method he explained.

Did Walt give up, NO, he started to watch what he was doing and gave his people better steps to be able to be just as good. Soon they were Executing just as good as he was. The strange thing was, a small percentage of the ideas actually made it to the execution stage. This was still considered a success because the ideas that made it through were so good, great actually truth be told.

What was the secret?

He broke the Ideas into Stages. Three specific stages and he needed strong boundaries around how he thought in each of these stages. Walt found that if you thought the same at each different stage of the idea, then you didn't get the best idea at the end of the process.

These stages are "Thinking Mindset Stages". Once you have read them, you start to understand why thinking about them as one would suppress your ideas, instead of letting them flourish.

Disney Creative Idea Stages

1. The Dreamer
This stage was for fantasising. Creating the most fantastic and absurd ideas as possible. No filter. Just wonderful, raw ideas. This stage was about “why not?”. Letting your thoughts run wild leads to better ideas, capturing the thoughts without judgement.

The dreamer mindset asked questions that help describe ideas:

What do you want?
What is the solution?
How do you imagine the solution?
What are the benefits of applying this solution?

2. The Realist
As the Realist, the Dreamer ideas would be re-examined, and re-worked into something more practical. It wasn’t about the reasons it could not be achieved, but only about it could be done. This stage is about “how?” This is the sorting process of the ideas.

During this stage all the thoughts should be constructive and target turning the idea into a real plan. This stage includes questions such as the following:

How can you apply this idea in reality?
What is the action plan to apply the idea?
What is the timeline to apply this idea?
How to evaluate the idea?

3. The Critic
The third stage, he would become the critic… shooting holes in the ideas he had come up with. This stage was about “Will it work?” This is the final stage before releasing the idea. Be very hard because it has been through the first 2 stages.

At this time, you provide a constructive critique of the idea in order to find the weak points and solve it in the final solution. In this stage, you ask questions as follows:

What could be wrong with the idea?
What is missing?
Why you cannot apply it?
What are the weaknesses in the plan?

To be the most effective in this process of creating the ideas. You need to step into the character to the specific stage. If you are a strong creative type of person, it may be best to hand the idea to another person for each of the subsequent steps after the initial idea is created. Remember those stages are required not to criticise you personally for the far left field thinking. The critique is on how practical it can be applied in life. Walt found also that there needed to be several iterations of the process, not just one time through. Once the realist has sprinkled a little light on the idea, hand it back to the Dreamer to go YES that is the exact feedback I was looking for, let's do this, this and this, that is so much better. Then hand it back for the Realist to say yes, it moves to the Critic or back for another review.

Are you starting to get a better perspective on why you could have been struggling on the Execution of your ideas? If you just created an idea and didn't go far out into dreamer's land, then the idea was not expanded enough. Did you have the sense to have a reality check or were you suffocating the idea, being the realist at the same time as the dreamer. Then to execute on a great idea the critic needs to ask the hard questions.

This process takes practice to get into your mindset for it. You may have to start with the help of 2 other people to help you train your mindset to be able to do this by yourself.

If this has helped you, then I am very grateful to be of help to you. If you are still a little confused or don't quite yet have the direction you need. Then maybe a one off session could help you get a better understanding.

See below for setting up a call.