Defeat your Imagination Assassin
Defeat your Imagination Assassin
Get unstuck, overwhelm doubts, and maybe have fun doing it.
Art © Bronwyn Schuster https://www.nywn.art
Your real-life gremlins will help YOU take down the ones in your own head.
I met my first gremlin at my first job out of college. This took place at the dawn of the first e-commerce bubble. I have a friend who at that time would check "all the new websites that were created that day" because there were few enough places on the "world wide web" that you could actually do that. Friends, it was the stone age.
The entire world was teeming with excitement over what was possible in the world online and big new players hired us to push the limits of tech.
On the front-end team, of which I was a part and an occasional lead, our job was to come up with solutions to designs that nobody had built yet. Imagine building a real castle with the equivalent of a child's wooden blocks.
What our job required was imagination, lots of it.
THE IMAGINATION ASSASSIN
In meetings, I began to notice there was one person who liked to "contribute" by being smart about obstacles. Not getting past obstacles, just pointing them out... and killing creativity.
We called this “Contributor” the "Idea Assassin!"
Meetings might look like this.
Team: So the designers want to do X. What if we built it with Y?
Idea Assassin: Ah, that won't work because of Z.
T: Ah, ok what about A as a solution?
IA: Mmmm, no, B would prevent that from working.
T: Ooooook, ok, wait, what if we try P!
IA: Yeah, no, Q conflicts with that.
He was great at never offering an answer, and an expert marksman for killing ideas.
To be fair, he was rarely wrong and the obstacles were real! However, by never offering a way forward or a "what about this other idea" he did two things.
He never took the risk to be wrong, a safe hiding place to take down everyone else's creative energy and ideas. And
By blocking every possible way forward, he wore down the team and killed even the desire to offer creative contributions.
YOUR OWN PERSONAL ASSASSIN
We all have this Imagination Assassin in our own heads.
In my work as an Impact Amplification Coach, I work with clients to identify and overwhelm these assassins. Even for the highest level performers, the insidious assassin keeps you from even greater potential.
The assassin "knows.”
The assassin tells us that that they “know” something won't work before we've explored every possible way forward.
And after a time, we can become tired. It’s exhausting to generate ideas only to watch them get shut down. If every idea meets an obstacle, at some point just the idea of trying to come up with an idea feels like defeat. And after a while we just keep playing small, safe, and risk-free.
However, I'm assuming if you're reading this you're more interested in making a bigger impact in the world. So...
HOW DO YOU TAKE OUT THE ASSASSIN?
First,
You find them. Notice where they like to hide.
In the example above, anyone familiar with the "yes, and" rules of brainstorming will see the issue right away.
It's harder to spot when the the call is coming from inside the house, and the assassin is in your head.
So our first tool (below) will help us identify what gets in your way.
Second,
You have to put energy into hiring a new powerful assassin to take out the Imagination Assassin.
This assassin's assassin I call the Inventive Avalanche.
The Inventive Avalanche courageously generates ideas. It’s a very simple, but effective tool if you lean into it.
Overwhelming with a deluge of optimism, the Inventive Avalanche confidently creates ideas, even if they are SURE they won't work (see why below). They are willing to be and look silly, suffer withering critique, and sit with fear of failure to just. keep. generating.
THE TOOLS
When feel like you might be stagnating, you might need to take out your Imagination Assassin.
Here are two questions you can ask yourself to power-up your Inventive Avalanche and leave the Imagination Assassin in the dust.
What belief is getting in your way?
(identify the assassin)
How _could_ it be done?
(start the avalanche)
For Question 1: Beliefs might be as simple as “It’s impossible,” or “we don’t have X, Y, or Z necessary resource,” or just as often “I don’t know how to do A, B, or C.” Other beliefs could be things about your own worth or what others will think or do.
For question 2: Write out as many answers as you can. Think of silly or impossible answers and write that down too! The path to reasonable ideas is often on the other side of the ones you know won't work.
This is so important: Remember, that part that "knows" it won't work... that's the assassin! So by writing down all the ideas you know won't work you are bringing down a mountain of ideas on the assassin, one pebble of an idea at a time.
PRO-TIP : MAKE IT WEIRD
Ways things could be done might be related to time, money, knowledge, or team-building. I’m suggesting you add some magic, science fiction, superhero intervention, warlocks, mermaids. A little laughter in any process can add courage, and perspective to a blah situation. And while it’s silly to think of Thor using an ancient Asgardian magic to solve your organizational hiring issues*, it might break the spell that assassin has over you.
So, when writing out how you _might_ solve a problem, make sure to
Write all the ideas, even silly ones
Ask, "and what's one more way” to always generate one more.
and just keep going.
This Inventive Avalanche will exhaust your Imagination Assassin, and when they are weakened, they won't have the energy to shoot down the ideas that just might actually work. Now your courage has a spot to take purchase.
This will free up your thinking, improve your outlook and mood, and get you back in a place where you feel like more is possible.
When you feel like more is possible, it usually is.
A good coaching relationship will greatly increase your ability to get to, parse, and take action on results from these tools.
To find out if coaching is right for you, click here.
* I wrote this before seeing Thor: Love and Thunder and it seems that Asgardian magic is perhaps used MOST often to solve organizational issues. Who knew?