As a leader, sometimes there’s a temptation to think that when you don’t act on an idea, it’s a wasted idea.
The sermon you didn’t preach that you had spent hours preparing.
The initiative you abandoned after months of development.
But I’m as proud of the ideas I’ve said no to as I am of the ones I’ve acted on. I’m as proud of the sermons that I didn’t preach that made way for the sermons that God did want me to preach. Of the ideas we abandoned as a church that made way for better ideas for us to pursue.
Every idea is worth recording and pondering. But not every idea is worth implementing.
Maybe it’s because it steals you away from your focus and your vision. Or maybe because the idea in question is really just a stepping-stone to a better, more refined idea.
Either way, often it’s the ideas that are canned that make room for the ideas that make the greatest impact.
Don’t ever be afraid of letting go of a mediocre idea for a good one. Or a good one for a great one. When you look back over your leadership or your life, some of your proudest accomplishments will be not what you did but what you chose not to do in favor of something better.