The Nine Stages of a Relationship with Your Ideas

I love the feeling of flirting with a new idea. The little whisper within. The spark of arousal and excitement of newness dancing around your mind. But, like any human relationship, newness of ideas fade off and good ideas take work. So here we are, the nine stages of a relationship with your ideas.

Stage #1 The infatuation stage. This is the first stage in every relationship. It almost always starts with an intense attraction and an uncontrollable urge to spend time with that idea. In this stage, you overlook any flaws in the idea and only focus on the good.

Stage #2 The understanding stage. In this stage, you start getting to know your idea better. You have long conversations with yourself or others that stretches late into the night, and everything about this idea interests and fascinates you. You explore many aspects of the idea, and life seems so beautiful and romantic.

Stage #3 The stage of disturbances. This stage usually forces its way into a happy romance after a few months of blissful courting. For the first time ever in the relationship, you confront the idea over a conflict, even though it’s sorted out quickly.

Stage #4 The opinion maker. In this stage, you create opinions about the idea. As the days pass by, you know what to expect from the idea. When these opinions and expectations about your idea differ now and then in real life, it can either leave you ecstatic or depressed.

Stage #5 The moulding stage. You have your own expectations from an ideal idea. And in this stage, you try hard to mould the idea to fit your own wants. This stage is a lot about give and take, and you constantly try to subtly persuade the idea to change their behavior. This is a power struggle, and one that can end the idea.

Stage #6 The happy stage. If the idea survives past the moulding stage, the idea cruises along perfectly and you may be blissfully happy with the idea. Almost always, this is the stage when you feel happiest. You may even decide to get commit to your idea in a big way, produce it, apply to a festival with it, seek out opportunities with it. This happy stage is also the stage of attachment when you truly feel connected to the idea and love it intensely.

Stage #7 The stage of doubts. It’s been several months since you have been in a relationship with this idea. And somewhere along the way, doubts start to creep in. You start to think of your past ideas, your success, and other prospective ideas. In this stage, you start comparing your ideas with other artists.

Stage #8 The bust stage. This is the stage when your creative life starts to play a pivotal role. Your creative drive may change or you may get disinterested in creativity. In this stage, you either give up on passionate creativity or constantly look for ways to make creativity more exciting. If creative interests start differing here, one of you may end up working on a new idea. But on the other hand, if you find creative ways to make creativity more exciting, you could get better and bring both of you a lot closer.

Stage #9 The stage of complete trust. This is the happy stage when you love your idea and trust your idea completely. In this stage, you know the direction of the idea and are completely happy with the idea.