I need to tell you about the pattern that kept me stuck for five years.

Every few weeks, I had a new idea.

A new app. A new business model. A new niche. A new approach that was definitely going to work this time.

I'd get excited. Research for hours. Buy a domain. Start building. Tell my wife about it.

Then two weeks later? Another idea. Better than the last one. More exciting. More potential.

The old project would quietly die while I chased the new shiny thing.

I called it "pivoting." I called it "staying flexible." I called it "following opportunity."

It was none of those things.

It was hiding. Dressed up as hustle.

Because here's what chasing new ideas really gives you: the excitement of starting without the pain of finishing. The dopamine hit of possibility without the grind of execution.

Starting is fun. Finishing is hard. So I just kept starting.

After five years, I had a graveyard of abandoned projects. Half-built apps. Domains I forgot I owned. Ideas that "could have worked" if I'd just stuck with them.

The truth? Most of them probably could have worked. I just never gave any of them a real chance.

When I drew the line, I made a rule: One thing. For one year. No new ideas until this one is done or dead.

It felt like prison at first. Every week I'd see something shiny and want to chase it.

But something changed. For the first time, I actually finished things. Shipped things. Built something real.

Turns out the problem was never the ideas. It was my inability to commit to one long enough to see it through.

If you've got a notes app full of "great ideas" and nothing in the world to show for it—you don't have an idea problem.

You have a commitment problem.

Pick one. Kill the rest. Give it a real chance.

Done negotiating.

-Joel