Why People Abandon Good Ideas

Most good ideas don’t end with a decision.

They fade quietly.

Not because they weren’t worth pursuing.
Not because the person lacked discipline or talent.
But because the idea was asked to become something before it was ready.

I’ve lived with an idea like that for most of my adult life.

Some Ideas Arrive Before Their Shape Exists

LifeAwesome was a mantra for me long before it was a website.

When the idea first appeared, I imagined something expansive — a lifestyle brand, a social experience, something people would adopt and rally around. It felt exciting, but it also felt heavy. There were expectations baked in before anything had been built.

So the idea lingered. For years.

It resurfaced at different moments, then receded again. Sometimes it felt alive. Other times it felt dormant, almost forgotten. From the outside, it might have looked abandoned.

It wasn’t.

It just didn’t yet have the right shape.

Pressure Is a Quiet Idea Killer

Looking back, the problem was never motivation.

It was pressure.

Pressure to make the idea big.
Pressure to meet imagined expectations.
Pressure to justify its existence with outcomes, timelines, or attention.

Every time I tried to move the idea forward under that weight, it stalled. Not because the idea was wrong — but because it was being asked to carry things it didn’t need to carry yet.

At some point, I realized something important: an idea can be real without being grand.

That changed everything.

Exit and Re-Entry Isn’t Failure

One of the most misunderstood parts of the creative process is leaving.

We treat exit as quitting. As evidence that we didn’t have what it takes.

But with LifeAwesome, I didn’t leave once. I exited and re-entered many times. The idea kept coming back, quietly, without accusation. That persistence mattered.

Some ideas don’t need constant attention.

They need permission to wait.

Circling an idea over time isn’t abandonment. It’s often how ideas survive long enough to become meaningful.

Delay Can Add Depth

Life has a way of shaping ideas while we’re busy doing other things.

During the years when LifeAwesome wasn’t “happening,” I was still living the idea. I was accumulating experiences, lessons, failures, and growth that the original version of the idea couldn’t have held.

By the time the project became real again, it was simpler — and far more honest.

I wasn’t trying to impress anyone.

I wasn’t chasing accolades or reach.

I wasn’t building against a timeline.

I just wanted to make a positive difference, quietly, in ways that felt true.

Completion Isn’t Always Clear — And That’s Okay

I’ve always been an idea person. Starting is easy. Ideation comes naturally. What’s harder is knowing what “done” looks like.

Sometimes the finished product is harder to imagine than the spark itself. And when completion feels vague or heavy, it’s tempting to walk away.

But not every idea needs a clean finish line.

Some ideas are meant to stay open — to grow, adapt, and evolve alongside you. They don’t need to be completed to be valid. They just need a place to live.

Doing It for Yourself Changes Everything

When LifeAwesome finally came back to life without pressure, it felt different.

It felt meaningful.

Maybe because this time, I was doing it for me.

Ultimately, it doesn’t matter if anyone else visits the site. LifeAwesome is where I curate my best life experiences, my lessons, how I improve myself. It holds the core of what’s meaningful to me — a digital home for ideas that matter. And that’s enough.

A Reassurance Worth Holding Onto

If you’re sitting on a good idea and feeling frustrated with yourself for not acting on it sooner, here’s something I wish someone had told me:

Your idea is a good one because it mattered enough to appear in the first place.

Delay doesn’t mean failure. It often means you’re gathering the experiences required to deliver the idea in the right way, at the right time, for the right audience — even if that audience is just you.

You might not be done yet.

You might just be getting ready.