I visited two neighboring farms. One farm was rich in crops and the other was poor. Both farmers had similar lands and their farms experienced similar environments.
Richness of crops signaled that farmer managed his farm well. He applied new technologies; he dealt with weeds and pests promptly and he knew the quality of soil and water he used well. The other farmer did not.
Ideas Crops
This brought the idea of this post. Our minds are the farms for the crops of ideas. Our mindsets are the farmers who either know how to grow crops well or not. Positive mindsets are like good farmers and know well how to grow ideas to generate good crops.
To generate successful ideas and grow them well requires a positive mindset that embraces
- Uncertainty and VUCA environment. Positive mindsets generate different scenario for possible future scenarios. These mindsets look for alternate possibilities. They do not try to control the uncontrollable but to adapt to it with agility.
- Growth oriented. They want to grow ideas to produce invitingly rich crops.
- Positive mindsets do not give up. They are persistent. They know failures are lessons and they learn from them.
- Embrace change. Positive minds embrace change rather than resisting it. They accept the opportunities change brings and the problems it causes and find solutions for them.
- Success-oriented. Positive mindsets work towards a successful results. They know they shall face obstacles and failures but remain committed to success.
- Weeds removers. Positive mindsets are weeds removers. Weeds come in different forms such as negative thoughts, discourage from others and feeling hopeless.
It is not enough to generate creative ideas; more is growing them successfully. Ideas are like seeds and they may be good or bad.
It is important to sort out the good seeds from the bad ones. However having good seeds without positive mindsets will only lead to poor crops.
We are farmers planting seeds of idea in our minds. It is our responsibility to grow them to yield rich crops.