A few days ago on twitter I posted the following:

“I have the three i’s: inspiration induced insomnia” – @imsickofmaps on twitter

I sometimes get these spurts of inspiration late at night and then spend hours with a notepad/iPad/iPhone/book/etc. scribbling, reading, thinking and Googling. That night I finally managed to get to sleep five hours after I went to bed about 3am. Sometimes I wake and whatever consumed me was just a passing crazy train of thought that no sane person would care to discuss with me. Thankfully, sometimes its not and that night was of those and has sparked a number of useful conversations since which warrant another blog post another day.

The next day I tweeted again a follow-up quote that is one of my favourites:

“Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration” – Thomas Edison

I’ve been thinking about that quote over the last few days and I think that there’s a missing portion to the formula in the quote which I’m stuck for a name for but is “post-inspiration but pre-perspiration”. To be cool it would need to be an “..piration” word but the concept is one of “thoughtful planning”. The formula is probably more like “1% inspiration + 5% thoughtful planning + 94% perspiration”. Too often I think people can jump straight from idea to execution and then flail around trying constantly pivot and re-aim in order to hit the mark they’re aiming for.

Anyone think of a “…piration” word for “thoughtful planning” so I can create a quote as cool as Thomas Edison?