LANDING YOUR THOUGHTS By Dr. John C. Maxwell

Years ago, a friend of mine looked at me in a meeting and made a statement that I've never forgotten. "John," he said, "ideas are like soap bubbles floating in the air close to jagged rocks on a windy day."

What a vivid picture of how incredibly frail thoughts and ideas really are! Think about it. How many times during the day does a thought pop into your head that makes you stop and say, "I really need to write that down - that's a great idea"? Now, how many of those thoughts do you actually remember and act upon? Unless you've made an intentional effort to record your ideas as they come, I'm guessing the first number is far greater than the second.

In my book, Thinking for a Change, I talk about the importance of "landing your thoughts." I compare this process to landing an airplane. What is the first thing you do when the flight attendant announces that your plane has begun its descent? You fasten your seatbelt because you realize you could be hitting the runway hard and you don't want to get hurt.

Now, if you were really afraid of a bumpy landing, you could beg the flight attendant not to let the pilot land the plane. But, in addition to attracting unwanted attention from airline security, that would defeat the whole point of being on the airplane, which is to get you to your final destination. So you fasten your seatbelt, grit your teeth and prepare for impact.The same principle applies to landing a thought. Any idea that remains only an idea doesn't make a great impact.

The real power of an idea comes when it goes from abstraction to application. And that's where seatbelts (and perhaps some teeth-gritting) are needed. When you land a thought - either by writing it down so you can study it later or by expressing it out loud to the people around you - you're bound to get all sorts of responses. To read the complete article follow this link