The Death of Potential

Why Waiting for the "Right Idea" is Wasting Your Best Ones

The Plausibility Trap

There’s this thing I wrestle with constantly. It’s not time. It’s not energy. It’s not even perfectionism.

It’s plausibility of outcome.

Whether this thing I’m thinking… will actually work.

That’s the real killer of momentum.

It’s the silent reason why most ideas never make it past the mind. They don’t get written down. They don’t get mapped. They don’t even get the dignity of a proper rejection. They just sit there, ghosting us. Creeping back in every few weeks like a song stuck in your head, but without the beat.

You know what I mean. That random idea while you’re driving, in the gym, in the shower. One moment it feels genius, the next moment it’s like your brain slaps it back down with a quiet “get real.”

But here’s the problem with that:
Most of us are constantly running mental background checks on every new idea we have.

We vet it for flaws before we even let it breathe.

• “What will people think?”

• “It’s been done before.”

• “How would I even start?”

• “What if I look like an idiot?”

We toss it away, but keep a tab on it.
Just in case it turns into something. Just in case someone else does it and proves it was a good idea after all.
That’s the part that gets me. That “just in case” is where the mental friction builds. Because now the idea isn’t gone. It’s lurking. Lingering. Demanding attention while you’re trying to focus on other things. It leaks into everything. Your work, your energy, your confidence.

And all because you didn’t do anything with it.
You didn’t give it a test drive. You didn’t throw it into the world even a little. You just… paused it. Shelved it.

And the reason?
You told yourself it wasn’t plausible.

You managed your expectations so well, you killed your own momentum.

Here’s the truth:
We’re addicted to being right about outcomes.
We’d rather bury a great idea than be wrong about it.

But what if you weren’t trying to be right?

What if you just let the idea live past your internal filter?

Not because it’s guaranteed to work. But because you’re guaranteed to grow by doing.

We forget that nothing great ever starts from certainty. Most successful ideas weren’t plausible when they started. Most people doing big things didn’t wait until their ideas were airtight.

They just tried.

They made it real outside their head. Wrote it down. Built a skeleton version. Sent it to a friend. Made the domain. Filmed the first awkward video. Whatever.

They didn’t ask if it was plausible.
They asked if it was worth exploring.

And here’s where it gets even more interesting…
Every time you force yourself to only keep plausible ideas, you’re training your mind to filter based on fear.
Fear of waste.
Fear of looking stupid.
Fear of “starting something I can’t finish.”

That’s not strategy. That’s hesitation disguised as logic.

We say we want clarity, but then we reject the very process that gives it to us: trying, failing, adjusting.

Ideas are seeds. Not blueprints.
They don’t need to be right. They need to be run.

Tested. Touched. Talked about. Built badly the first time.

But we’ve been conditioned to believe that if it’s not fully formed, fully funded, or fully figured out, it’s not valid.

Wrong.

Some of the best things you’ll ever create will start off feeling completely dumb.
Unoriginal. Weak.
But they evolve through motion.
And motion only happens when you decide that “plausibility” is irrelevant.

What matters is progress.

Let your ideas out of your head.
Not every idea will become a business or a masterpiece, but every attempt trains your mind to act instead of filter.

It’s how you build momentum.
It’s how you stop second guessing yourself.
It’s how you separate what’s real from what’s just noise.

So the next time a strange, exciting, or totally questionable idea hits you…

Don’t ask if it’s plausible.
Don’t predict the outcome.
Don’t run a mental simulation.

Just take it one step further than you normally would.

Sketch it. Say it out loud. Build a basic version.
Let it be messy. Let it be wrong. Let it teach you something.

Because that’s the difference between the ones who build and the ones who stay stuck.

The builders try.
The stuck ones filter.

You get to choose which one you are.

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