Column Judith Witte: Innovating

At the beginning of the year, I am always bursting with good intentions. This year, I had come up with a few more. Eat less candy and snacks, go to bed on time, and don't buy any new clothes for the first few months. Not groundbreakingly innovative, and I didn't really like my good intentions, but they seemed very sensible to me. Somewhat less conventional was the promise I made to myself to stop filling my calendar so full. I wanted more room for spontaneity, creativity, and philosophizing. That was something I was really excited about.

In mid-January, I accidentally ended up watching a really exciting movie about a very heroic person who courageously stepped off the beaten track and managed to realize her dream. She did. The movie was too long to get to bed on time. Snuggled up on the couch in a brand new warm sweater, I polished off a whole bowl of popcorn by myself. Status of my New Year's resolutions: failed. 

Forty to fifty percent of our behavior consists of ingrained habits and routines. Fortunately so. Imagine if you had to think about everything over and over again: what time you go to bed and get up, how you make coffee, what you have for breakfast, which route you take to work... you would be exhausted before the day had even begun. At the same time, while philosophizing on this theme, I realize that all those habits and routines do more than just make my life easy and pleasant. Too many routines, and my life becomes hopelessly boring and predictable. Not exactly fertile ground for innovative ideas and concepts.  

Just having the intention to change yourself, or something, is not enough. We have known that for a long time, of course. And musing and philosophizing about a good intention, innovative product, or disruptive technology is great fun, but it doesn't get the job done. What really gets you ahead is taking the step. Doing it. Getting started. And then: not giving up. I promise myself that I can just start over after a first, and subsequent, “failure”; as long as I learn from it. Yes, that takes some courage and guts. But the reward is great, I now know.

Judith Witte
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