After the “Aha!” What’s Next? - 14 Questions to Help Clarify Your Steps After a Flash of Inspiration

We all get a flash of inspiration or an idea to do or run with something from time to time. If you don’t get on it right there and then, some of these ideas thaw in intensity and later disappear into oblivion, some remain subdued at our sub-consciousness, while some are nagging and clamouring for immediate treatment.

It seems there are more cases of the first two categories above than there are the third. And even in the event of the persistent third, it takes some process to transport an idea from the realm of intangibility to the sphere of concrete reality. A course of action is required to transform an inspiration into an expression, a move into a movement.

Below are 14 questions that will help you to clarify your thoughts and define your steps on what to do after a bout of inspiration:

1. What is the assignment?
Answering this question will help you to clearly define and have an insight on what exactly you are required to do.

2. What are the tasks?
This will help you to identify the tasks that are involved in the assignment. The tasks are the bits and pieces of things you will have to do to ensure that you are on track of executing the assignment.

3. What is the purpose?
Knowing the purpose of your assignment will give you a sense of location and direction. It is soothing to the mind to know that one’s actions are premised on a motive that is considered noble or charitable. Knowing the purpose of your assignment gives you a sense of significance for being a contributor to the advancement of the mankind. And when the chips are down, it also gives you reasons to go on.

4. Who are the targets?
You must be able to define your audience, your market or the class of people whom your assignment (campaign, products, and services) will benefit. This is a very critical aspect because the success/failure of your offering, nay your fulfilment/frustration as a pioneer, are largely dependent on identifying the group of people who need your idea or would benefit from your assignment, and then taking your campaign to them.

5. What is the scope?
Knowing the scope of your assignment will also save you a lot of stress and frustration. The scope of your offering may the within your locality, it may also be within your state, region, nation, or continent. Knowing this will help you to plan your move and your scale of operations.

6. What is the platform?
The platform is the means/channel through which you want to execute your action or pass your message to your audience, target, market etc. You need to determine what platform is most suitable to reach your target. And you can’t determine this until you have taken time to study your audience very well that you know their tastes and preferences.

7. What are the modus?
You need also to take time to plan your modus operandi. How do you intend to pass your message across in a way that it would be effectively understood? How would you deliver your offering so that it would be warmly received by your target? How…? How…? How…? The modus questions help you to take care of all matters pertaining to impact in your delivery.

8. When is the time?
Timing is a strategic factor in all endeavours that can either make or mar its outcome altogether. Knowing the time to start, the time to move, the time to charge, the time to pause, the time to withdraw, the time to quit et al requires more than an average thinking.

9. What is my source?
Knowing what gives you inspiration, energy and drive will help you know what to do/where to go whenever you are running dry and need to replenish. So it is in your best interest to identify your source of creative energy before launching out so as not to get bewildered and cut off in the middle way. You should also be able to identify how best you access your source of creative energy.

10. What are the resources?
Knowing the resources that are needed to effectively perform your tasks helps you to know what to look for and what to spend on. By having a holistic inventory of all you need to fulfil your assignment, you are better positioned to kick off on a sure footing. Even if you don’t have all of them at the moment, you know when you would need what and what you can do to improvise along the way.

11. Who are my mentors?
A careful consideration of all the factors above would help you to identify who you need to seek for counsel in your set assignment. You would have also determined what you need to take them on so that you don’t get there and start rambling on irrelevances, wasting both their time and yours in the process. It is always advisable to have highlighted all the other factors before rushing to mentors.

12. Who are my partners?
Taking time to answer all the questions above will also help to determine the kind of people you would need as partners or running mates. Knowing your own areas of strengths and weaknesses is also a critical factor to determining who you seek to partner with you and what skills set you require to deliver on the assignment.

13. What preparations are required?
You will also need to determine the kind of preparation you would need in order to deliver effectively on your assignment. What skills you need to acquire, what training you need to do, what habit you need to acquire/shed etc etc.

14. What knowledge is required?
Acquisition of relevant knowledge is an aspect of preparation. But it deserves to be treated as an independent factor so that it is not abandoned altogether. You need to know the range of information you will require to execute your assignment successfully. You also need to know where you can access this information, whether they are formal or informal settings. What are those things you need to know even before you start? What are the ones you need to acquire on the go?

All these are the questions you would have to answer verifiably to insure your inspiration and ensure that it does not end as “one of those ideas” we all have and don’t give attention to until we see someone else thriving with it.