Magic Beans:
Everyone else thinks they’re crap and nothing happens until you plant them!
I am the queen, nay empress, of handfuls of magic beans:
- hey, look at these beans, aren’t they cool? Not really. Oh. ~~~~Garbage
- hey, look at these beans, what should I do with these beans? You should set those beans aside and concentrate on this solidly boring thing over here. Oh. ~~~~Garbage.
- hey, look at these beans, should we move forward with these? Yes, and I shall take all the credit. Oh~~~~shit…those were my beans!
- hey, look at these beans… They’re stupid. Oh. ~~~~Garbage.
Are you like me, always asking other people what they think about your magic beans, or asking them what you should do with your magic beans? Or maybe you’re just holding onto your magic beans–no one gets to see them! Including you!
Well. Stop it. Now. I mean it.
And when I tell you to stop it, I’m actually telling myself to stop it. It’s just easier to tell you to stop. And you probably need to hear it too.
To be fair, magic beans make other people nervous–people around you who don’t know what the heck to do with their own magic beans, let alone want to hear about yours.
Become comfortable with your MBs. If you’re not sure about ’em, who will be? Not until you’re comfortable with them yourself, and you’ve found a spot to grow them, and you’ve tended them for a while and not, you know, let them whither and die because you were too busy…
Clearly, magic beans are ideas–not just any ideas, not those ideas you freely scatter all over and if someone thinks it stinks, so be it. Maybe it does. Maybe it doesn’t. Magic Beans are not those, they are the ideas that wake you up at night, those ideas you can’t shake. The big ideas. The ideas that if someone says stinks, you’ll be crushed. Yeah, those ideas.
Again, what to do, what to do. Get an idea buddy, not a “yes” woman, but someone who is there to help you flesh out the idea, not to squash, but maybe to question and hold space for your accountability–its a reciprocal relationship, you’d be there for them in the same capacity. Put it on your calendar, bi-weekly, or monthly meetings specific to ideas (magic beans ;)), hold space for incubation and idea formation, and have faith in yourself.
Here’s to MBBs: may you find one and may you be one.
If you’re willing to share, I’d love to be an honorary MBB, tell us your big idea! Amy
Practically Magic 