How to turn nothing into something, 2025 style
The critical step between the idea and taking action (and why most people skip it)
The Spice Girls asked a question most of us dodge:
“So, tell me what you want, what you really, really want...”
It’s a fun lyric, until you actually try to answer it.
It’s easier to keep things light. I know I do.
Not in a bad way...I just don’t overthink things. I don’t sit around mulling over my “Why”, and all things considered, I think this mindset serves me well (though, I wouldn’t prescribe it for everyone).
But every now and then, I can be less surface-level-esque.
As I write this, I’m looking around my office, thinking, ‘Isn’t it WILD that there was a time where none of this stuff existed?’
The podcast gear. The Post-it notes. (No, don’t worry, I won’t be the 750,000th speaker talking about 3M Post-it notes…Can we please start using current innovation examples? oh the irony.)
Back to my point: There was a time when it was all just... nothing. It didn’t exist yet.
W.I.L.D!
Yet, here we are.
I keep saying it: 2025 is an incredible time to be alive.
You can take a passing idea, mock it up, visualise it, show it to someone. You can send out a PayPal link with an offer over a text message to validate a new idea. You can move your entire role to a new continent.
But for most people, the real challenge isn't the thinking it, or the doing it.
It’s the bit in between that no one talks about.
But first, let me explain.
I was taking a long walk on Sunday, listening to Jim Rohn’s brilliant audiobook. I love listening to it every year. 12.5 hours of Jim Rohn’s storytelling and wisdom. The best!
He shared something that made me stop in my tracks.
“In order to turn nothing into something, you’ve got to start with ideas and imagination. Ideas that become so powerful in your mind and in your consciousness that they seem real to you even before they become tangible. Imagination that is so strong, you can actually see it.” - Jim Rohn
He outlines a simple three-step process to turn nothing into something
Imagine all the possibilities.
Believe it’s possible for you.
Go to work and make it real.
I think Step 1 (imagining/brainstorming/ideating) and Step 3 (forming habits, accountability, discipline, execution, getting things done) tend to dominate the conversation.
But I think Step 2: Believe it’s possible for you is actually the hardest part.
We rarely talk about the quiet, confronting middle step: the moment where you stop brainstorming and actually admit you want the thing to be real.
That step, often skipped or sugar-coated, is where most ideas die.
Not because they lack potential, but because the person holding them doesn’t yet believe they’re someone who gets to live that kind of story.
The underestimated work of belief
Step 2 sounds simple: believe it’s possible for you. But in practice, it forces you to confront how much you’ve been deflecting or downplaying what you want.
I was listening to a brilliant ABC Conversations interview with poet and philosopher,
.After university, he made a vow to himself: “I will never apply for a job.”
When asked why he refused to apply for a job, he explained that his vow was a protective move:
“It’s that same dynamic all of us have when we feel as if we’re going to get our heart broken. So you make up a defensive story:
I’m not going to have my heart broken.
I’m going to pretend I want something else.”
Ooh, this resonated for me.
Years ago, I found myself doing exactly this.
A management role opened up - one I knew I wanted. I wrote my application and submitted it. A day later, I emailed the hiring manager and told her to throw my submission out.
I justified it/deflected it, telling myself it wasn’t the right time. I talked myself out of it because I wanted to ‘work on other projects’.
But if I’m honest with myself… I didn’t want to sit with the feeling of coming up short. I didn’t believe the role was possible for me.
The emotional cost of wanting something you might not get is higher than we like to admit.
So we don’t admit it.
We don’t apply. We don’t pitch. We don’t send the message. We tell ourselves we’re not ready or… *shrug* “Yeah, I’m just not that interested”.
We rationalise…. (btw, break down that word: Rational Lies!)
(Ooh and on this: Read David Whyte’s poem on this, Admit: your distant love affair is with yourself).
If any of this feels uncomfortably familiar, you’re not alone. We all do it. It plays out in every single aspect of our lives.
It shows up when you don’t reach out to a friend you miss, because you’re not sure they feel the same way.
It shows up when you walk past a gym and think, “That’s not for me,” before anyone even asks what your goal is.
It shows up when you don’t post the thing you want to say, because what if it doesn’t get traction, or worse, what if it does?
We lie to ourselves before the world ever gets a chance to.
It’s easier to reject ourselves and dismiss an idea, than be rejected by the world.
But it can also take you somewhere new. And you don’t get that part unless you’re willing to step into the belief first.
That’s why in 2025, belief doesn’t have to live in your head
You get to actually see it.
We’ve got more tools than ever to bring ideas to life and help us imagine this is possible for us. Tools like Sora and other AI platforms can help you visualise an idea before it exists. And that’s exactly what I did recently.
I’m training to climb Everest Base Camp / Lobuche Peak later this year. It’s a real challenge - physically, emotionally, logistically, especially because I’ve never been on a multi-day hike before.
So I took a simple step to imagine this into reality: I used AI to create an image of myself at the summit. It’s a fun, light way to step into the belief that this future is mine.
I’ve done the same with my work.
A fun exercise is writing up your DREAM job role, work gig (or, your dream project if you’re a consultant).
I’ve written up a fake pinch-me proposal, outlining a project that I’d be over the moon to deliver… Not as a hello-universe-woo-woo-thing, but to remind myself of what I actually want, and that this type of work is within my reach.
Why? Well, as my Talk the Walk co-host Alan Weiss says, “The most important sale is to yourself”.
The real job of a leader: Making others believe
In my consulting work, I see this often in internal teams. The vision exists on a slide. The project has goals.
But people don’t move, not because they’re unclear, but because they don’t see themselves in the future being described.
That’s Step 2 again, scaled across a group.
Even in sales conversations, it shows up.
When a prospect tells me “I’m just not ready to commit to this yet,” often, they’re not talking about timing. They’re talking about belief.
What they often mean is: I don’t think I’m the kind of person who gets to do this.
And sometimes, the person saying that is us.
🌴
Okay, so practical steps
Like most things in life, this is simple, not easy.
It requires internal honesty. Where are you pretending not to care, just to avoid disappointment?
Start with asking yourself: Can I just be honest about what I actually want? (or, play Wannabe by Spice Girls on repeat and actually answer the question!)
(Btw this is a brilliant daily question that you’ll find in Michael Bungay Stanier’s Do Something That Matters journal).
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Join me daily as I podcast on Leanne on Demand. This week, I share a handy Google tool to help you Delete yourself from the internet and How I’m using an AI tool to help maintain my Qantas flight status.
Also, a couple of weeks ago I shared this article on memes.
After writing the article, I thought I’d create my own meme :)
🌴
Leanne “Baby Spice was my favourite” Hughes
p.s. One place left for my 2025 retreat, the Red Carpet Campout, 16–18 June. Curious? Reply with “campout.” That’s it.
p.p.s. If this hits home, tap the ❤️ or share your thoughts in the comments.
oofff...I'm going to be sitting with this one for a while. After actually making it through all three steps and moving myself to Europe I'm now realizing I'm having to go through the cycle all over again! It's both daunting and delightful. But I appreciate the emphasis on step 2 - looking back that is what pushed me to make it happen. Back to imagining the new possibilities...
A wonderful share Leanne, thank you. It reminded me of the book, The Mountain Is You - exploring all the ways we get in our own way and self-sabotage. I also often get stuck at step 1... so I am going to do my very own 'dream' project scenario and see what is born!