Drowning in Choices: Stay Afloat While Dealing with Shiny Object Syndrome

Your next idea won't save your career. Write it anyway.

Image by GrafiThink.

A friend recently confided in me why he hasn’t finished writing anything new this year: he feels immense pressure to create something groundbreaking. He keeps shifting gears, searching for that magical concept that will provide his big break.

But guess what?

That idea’s never coming. You can't think your way to a best-selling novel or comic.

Breakthroughs come from putting in the work.

The only path to progress is to write, publish, and then do it again. Learn from the journey. Embrace the bumps and bruises you’ll endure as you hone your craft and build your audience. 

Along the way, you might stumble upon an idea that lights you up and resonates deeply with your readers.

But you’ll never know which idea that might be if you don’t finish anything.

The Problem with Stalling

Call it what you want: Shiny Object Syndrome, Idea Hopping, Novelty Seeking. It all amounts to the same thing—stalling.

If you're constantly jumping from one tantalizing idea to the next in search of the golden ticket, you’re not developing anything cool at all.

Instead, you’re developing:

• Lack of Focus — The thrill of new ideas leads you to piles of incomplete work and an inability to see any one project through to the end.

• Decreased Productivity — Switching projects disrupts your rhythm, eventually creating doubt in your creativity and ability to produce.

• Stalled Career Progression — Building a portfolio and establishing yourself as someone worth reading is impossible without completed projects.

The worst part? The longer you stay in the cycle, the harder it is to break free.

Take Stock of Your Productivity

If any of this sounds familiar, take a moment to reflect on the past year. How many projects have you abandoned? How many did you finish?

That exciting new idea you were so hyped about in February, what happened to it? Did it lead you to the promised land? What about that one you ditched it for in March?

Now look at those writers you follow online. You know, the ones you admire but also sort of hate. The ones you secretly get upset about because they’re launching their fifth damn Kickstarter campaign while you’re still debating which project to work on.

Want to know the difference between them and you?

They finished something and shared it with others, you didn’t.

That’s it.

You can cry about their privilege, or their luck, or the fact they have more time than you do. But the bottom line is this: they finish projects, you don’t.

Watching others succeed while you’re searching for that one great idea only adds to the pressure because now you’re feeling left behind. So instead of building slowly like everyone else, you need that doozy of a project to catch up.

This escalation of pressure can paralyze you even more, forcing you to double down on your search for the one magical idea.

What Are You Afraid Of?

If you’re jumping after each new idea, only one thing keeps you back: Fear.

You get a dopamine rush from a new idea, so you might think it’s the rush of something new that you’re really after. But that’s a red herring.

It may start as a fear of failure or even a fear of success, but over time, it turns into a fear of commitment. Choosing one idea means forgoing others, which can be terrifying when you're desperate for your next work to be your magnum opus.

It doesn’t matter how great your ideas are. You don’t make a name for yourself with ideas. You don’t earn fans (or money) from ideas.

All that matters is what you finish.

Taming Shiny Object Syndrome

Instead of floundering in a sea of ideas, focus on the power of completion. Here are some strategies to help you break free from the cycle of Shiny Object Syndrome:

• Start Small — This is the solution to almost every mindset hurdle. Pick something manageable, finish the damn thing, and then celebrate your accomplishment. Oh no! It didn’t shoot you to the top of the leaderboard? Nope, it probably won’t. Neither will the next one. But now you have something to grow on. And isn’t finishing more rewarding than debating if that shiny new idea is “the one?”

• Stop Telling People Your Ideas — It’s fun to share your big new idea, right? You’re pumped up now, ready to go. Well, that feeling can release dopamine, a reward chemical in the brain, which feels great, but it can trick the brain into believing you've already made progress toward your goal. This sensation reduces the drive to complete the task because your brain already feels partially rewarded.

• Limit New Ideas — Give yourself a rule that new ideas go into a “parking lot” for future exploration. Write them down in a notebook, knowing there’s plenty of time to address that kick-ass idea later. Remember that revolutionary idea you had in 2022? The one you dropped everything else for… that wasn’t “the one,” and neither will this one. Jot it down and focus on the one you’ve already started.

• Create a Routine — Establish a daily or weekly writing schedule. Consistency builds momentum, making it easier to push through difficult phases of a project.

• Write. Publish. Repeat. — If you want to succeed as a writer, you must write and publish. Some of your ideas will succeed. Others won’t. But you’ll never know until you do it.

Waiting for the right idea to fall in your lap isn’t a plan.

Thinking incessantly and mapping out how great this new idea is hasn’t gotten you anywhere in the past, and it won’t in this instance, either.

Do the work.

Write and publish.

That’s the only way.

So tell me, what steps can you take today to commit to just one of your ideas and see it through to the end?