Sharing Ideas

There are a lot of ideas that run through my head on any given day or hour. Most of them get filtered out and disappear like smoke. Some of them stick around for a while and eventually find their way out the door. A few actually make it into my conversations and prayers. However, even the ideas that make the cut often get held back from being put into practice for a number of reasons.

1. They are premature. They don't get buy in from others because the "long range" of it isn't able to be described or adequately fleshed out. This isn't always a shortcoming of the idea itself. More often it's a hangup of those who hear the idea and may or may not be brave or foolish enough to make the leap.

2. They get stolen. I'm not a person who has to have credit for things, but it still frustrates me when someone grabs and idea and runs away with it. Because, ultimately when the idea fails, the person comes back to me and blames me for not following through. Not sure how that happens, but it has happened. 

3. The looming fear of failure suppresses the idea. 'nuff said.

4. The looming fear of success suppresses the idea. If the idea makes it out of the gate, the institution wants it followed, tracked, measured, analyzed, graphed and so forth. The microscope is focussed and the idea is judged successful or not. But, for me, just the fact that all of the metrics get applied to each idea is oppressive. 

So now what...

It's time for more of the ideas to be shared. It's time for the fear of success or failure, theft or misappropriation to step aside and let the ideas live. Whether they live long or short, whether they meet with overwhelming fanfare or crickets chirping is completely beside the point. Ideas need to be shared in order for any of them to do anything. Ideas won't sit still without burning a hole in your heart or head, like a hot coal on a cheap lawn chair. 

How do you share ideas?