Coaching practices for I've Got Maybe Two Ideas for What to Do About This and Both Feel Hopeless So I Shoot Every Other Thought Down Before I Even Finish it That Won't Work That's Stupid and I End Up Convinced There's Just Nothing I Can Do
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For I've Got Maybe Two Ideas for What to Do About This and Both Feel Hopeless So I Shoot Every Other Thought Down Before I Even Finish it That Won't Work That's Stupid and I End Up Convinced There's Just Nothing I Can Do, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- I’ve got maybe two ideas for what to do about this and both feel hopeless, so I shoot every other thought down before I even finish it
- I’ve stopped trying because some part of me has already concluded nothing I do makes a difference
- The second an idea pops up I’ve already told myself why it won’t work, so it dies before I’ve even finished thinking it
- I’ve been turning this thing over in my head for weeks, planning and re-planning, and I’ve made nothing
- I come up with three or four obvious options, one of them seems fine, and I just grab it
Practices that may help
- Generate solutions without premature evaluation
List as many potential solutions as possible before judging any of them.
Problem-Solving Therapy, Made Practical - Interrupt learned helplessness
Test the belief that "nothing works" by running one small experiment that could prove it wrong.
Locus of Control: Building a Sense of Agency - Defer judgment during generation
Generate ideas with no criticism, then evaluate in a separate pass.
Divergent Thinking: Generating Many Ideas - Bias toward action over deliberation
Ship a rough version fast to learn what the problem actually is rather than theorizing indefinitely.
Creative Confidence, Made Practical - Go for quantity first
Aim for a high number of ideas; the best ones tend to come later in the list.
Divergent Thinking: Generating Many Ideas - Introduce a random constraint when stuck
Arbitrary limits force a new approach because your habitual one is blocked.
Oblique Strategies, Made Practical - Deliberately generate bad ideas first
Start with the worst ideas you can think of — bad ideas are faster to generate and reveal hidden assumptions.
Quantity Over Quality: How More Drafts Produce Better Work - Go for quantity over quality
Set a raw count target — the goal is many ideas, not good ones.
Osborn’s Brainstorming Rules, Made Practical - Balance divergent with convergent thinking
Treat creativity as two phases — open up to generate, then close down to select.
Divergent Thinking: Generating Many Ideas - Use minimal pathways in dark moments
In crisis, one small, manageable path forward is enough — hope theory scales down.
Hope Theory: Agency, Pathways, and Getting Unstuck
Related concerns
- Divergent Thinking Generating Many Ideas For My Teenager
Divergent thinking is generating many varied ideas before judging any of them — the opposite of converging on one answer. The most reliable practical principle is to separate idea generation from evaluation. An honest caveat: traditional group brainstorming usually underperforms the same people working alone and pooling ideas, due to a documented productivity loss.
- How To Vary Ideas
Aim for a high number of ideas; the best ones tend to come later in the list.
Go for quantity first
- No Bad Ideas
Start with the worst ideas you can think of — bad ideas are faster to generate and reveal hidden assumptions.
Deliberately generate bad ideas first
- When Brainstorming Rules Combine And Build
Treat every idea as a building block — the best ideas in a session are usually hybrids.
Combine and build on others’ ideas
- When Creative Confidence Creative Constraint Reframe
Treat every limitation as a design parameter that focuses rather than restricts creative output.
Reframe constraints as creative inputs, not blockers
- When Divergent Thinking Balance Divergent Convergent
Treat creativity as two phases — open up to generate, then close down to select.
Balance divergent with convergent thinking
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