Creating a System Part 2 - The Sidewalk

RECAP

Last week I shared with you the framework of the system I have been using on X, if you haven’t read that yet: YOU ARE MISSING OUT!

Today I will going over an example of me taking a basic concept and reworking it

The Initial Idea

“Burnout doesn’t exist”

This started off as that controversial post

So what I did with this is compared it to my personal experience

I started writing down all the different parts of my life that related the topic of burnout.

It looked like this…

As you can tell the idea of burnout did actually exist for me, so I had to restructure the concept behind being burn out.

Somewhere along the way I brought in the idea of boredom, and found this quote to match it as well.

Too fast = Burnout

Too slow = Boredom

Makes sense so far?

Now I have never directly faced burnout but I am quite familiar with boredom, in fact boredom is what got me to start writing in the first place.

So then I imagined a spectrum. On one side is boredom, and the other side is burnout.

Your goal is to be in the middle.

Idea Transformation

So now I knew what I was working with

Right?

I started with a controversial post, and after 10 minutes of brainstorming I ended up with: boredom and burnout coexisting on opposite sides of a spectrum.

But how did I turn it into a post?

Storytelling

Now this was an idea that came to after just visiting NYC

Known for busy traffic and parks!

Busy Traffic = Burnout

Parks = Boredom (don’t hate me, just keep reading)

And what’s in the middle?

A sidewalk!

So imagine walking down a sidewalk; one side is fast moving traffic, and the other is a dark forest.

And just like that I took a basic concept that was originally meant to draw controversy and turned into a potential long form tweet!

All it took was 15 minutes of brainstorming

But where did I find the original idea?

By living life

You don’t need to scroll on twitter to find good ideas.

Do things outside and amplify them inside.

Additional Tips

I also get a lot of my ideas from books and podcasts

Check some of them out!

Books:

Blue Ocean Strategy

Copywriter’s Handbook

How to Win Friends & Influence People

Podcasts:

Modern Wisdom

Huberman Labs

The Daily Stoic

Thanks for reading

Till next time,

Jay