There are multiple ways of establishing what makes a good idea. In this short story I will share with you my 3 best professional ideas of the recent years - as in the ideas that have had the most impact on my work. (I would like to say of the 2020s, but two out of three were created during 2010s).

You might think that the ideas I’m about to describe here are connected to great products, services or collabs, bringing the biggest revenue etc. Sure, they were all great and important, but those particular three have resulted in - and lead to bigger things than others. So here we go (in chronological order, so it will all make sense):

(oh yeah, one more thing: this is a personal post of mine and what I want you to do with it is to read it and make it “yours”. Can you be inspired by my decisions to make similar ones for yourself?)

The idea of adopting a rescue dog in July of 2017.

At the first glance this is not a professional idea at all. Let me explain how I see it.

Having a dog - a huge dog of an active breed in particular (Zumo is a doberman/border collie/greyhound mix) is the best medicine against workaholism. Suddenly you get healthy routines for yourself that involve both movement and natural breaks. Plus… you want to spend time with your doggy, so you become (or I became) super efficient!

From day 1 I didn’t want Zumo to have any alone time, so I remodeled my business to being strictly online. People would question this at first, but fast forward 3,5 years and here we are - a lot of us are working from home. I dare to say that I had a fair head start to today’s working environment. Plus… face it… producing online content can be both time saving and lucrative.

The idea of following my geographical heart.

I was born in Poland and moved to Sweden in my teens. We arrived in the very south of Sweden, in Skåne. I have moved for work and lived in different places since, but my heart has always been here. You can take a girl out of Skåne - but you can’t take Skåne out of a girl. I remember saying: “when I retire, I’ll move back”.

And then life happened and I got an opportunity to reshape my future in December of 2019. The fact that I’ve been working from home for a while at that time made it even easier for me to relocate 650 km south and “come home”. Yes, I am very far away from the capitol of Sweden where i had most of my LIVE keynotes, and there will be times after the pandemic when I will be asked to actually be at the location. Then I’ll drive in - and at the same time visit my friends. In the meantime, I cannot tell whether it’s the Skåne air, the ocean view from my terrace or the fact that I am exactly where I need to be that does the trick - the quality of my work has never been better.

The idea of turning off social media.

A month ago I closed my Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok accounts. For the purpose of the drama, I say that I quit “all” social media, which is not true: I kept LinkedIn, Twitter and Clubhouse. With all due respect to the ones I kept, I use them strictly for professional reasons and I don’t find them "entertaining” enough to randomly scroll for hours on end. Plus, those are the ones that actually give me ROI.

What made me turn off my social media in the first place was this article by Megan Holstein: (click here) - the promise of huge amounts of free time sounded appealing to me. Until then, I had spent intolerable amount of time several times a week deciding on the next image for my IG grid, only to get about 12 likes. I needed a change.

Do you know what happens when you delete “all” your social media? Not only do you get back your time, but you also detox your brain in a way I’d never thought possible! You see… suddenly there is no reflex to reach for your phone and check some updates mid task (can you relate?), and your mind doesn’t get cluttered with bloopers and cat videos. My days are maybe slightly more boring than they used to be, but oh man! The focus I can obtain nowadays is impressive!
I am NOT saying that you should delete all your social media, I am just telling you about the wonders it did to me. Plus… I don’t really miss it like I thought I would. If you want to get in touch with me, text me! +46705549659 (things people used to do…)

— — —

Your best professional ideas might just be those touching personal matters. The questions close to your heart that might affect rest of your work. We’ve been talking about this before - in order to come up with great ideas, you need to give yourself as good conditions as possible. Maybe quitting something, or relocating, or getting a pet, or starting a hobby or…. (fill in the ___________) will be that thing that puts everything else in motion. That’s worth exploring, isn’t it?

My 3 best professional ideas (and they are n…

Create your profile

Only paying subscribers can comment on this post

Check your email