Increase Creativity By Nurturing Your Ideas: Don’t Leave Them Standing Cold & Naked In The Rain!
One of the best ways to increase our creativity is to take better care of the ideas we have.
Our creative ideas are the food, water and essential nutrients of our creative lives. Without new ideas, we’re stuck, stood still, lost without direction. Without an idea as a starting point, we can’t be creating.
So it follows, a steady flow of creative ideas is essential to maintain a healthy and constantly evolving and flourishing creative life.
And, the best part is, EVERYONE is capable of having great ideas. Ideas that can surprise us, springing up from nowhere and hit us firmly round the chops with a “I’m-just-so-obvious-why-haven’t-you-come-across-me-before?!” kind of audacity.
But having the ideas is often the easy part.
It’s what we do with them the moment AFTER they’ve given us that playful slap around the face that’s crucial.
How many of the great ideas you’ve had in your creative lifetime up to now would you say you’ve followed through and developed to their natural full potential? 75%? 50%? 10%?
What percentage of all the ideas you’ve had have been followed by the thought: “What a brilliant idea, I must make a note of it”, then forgotten just moments later, left to disappear lost forever back to the mysterious darkness from whence they came?
It’s likely the second number is significantly higher than the first.
Not recording our ideas in some way is the equivalent to leaving them standing cold and naked out in the rain. They’ll either catch pneumonia and die, or run for cover somewhere far away. Somewhere warm, dry and welcoming, where they’re welcomed in, wrapped in a huge soft towel and sat in a comfy chair by an open fire with a delicious mug of cocoa...
So what can we do to ensure we take better care of our ideas, and put more of them to good use?
The secret is in the recording of the idea and there are two key parts to this, each as essential:
Essential Part 1. WHEN we record the idea. This is so important. We must record the idea at the moment it hits us, while it’s fresh and vivid and most alive to us, ascending like a blazing shooting star against the night sky.
Leave it too long and it’s magic starts to fade, leave it longer still and it’ll slip from your memory quicker than a wet bar of soap dipped in baby oil.
Essential Part 2. In HOW MUCH DETAIL we record the idea. To give our idea the best possible chance to develop into something amazing, we must get its pure essence down quickly, yet in a richly detailed form.
We need to get a snapshot of the idea that’s as visual and memorable as possible. We want to capture the idea so strongly that when we return to it, whether that’s tomorrow, next week or next year, it bursts back off the page with all the energy and excitement as when it first came to us.
Do everything possible to catch this essence when the idea first hits, and you’ll find when you return to it it’s so much more inspiring and ready to grow into something incredible.
So, the next time a great new idea hits you, what are you going to do?
Leave it standing naked and shivering in the rain? Or welcome it in and nurture it?
Go on, put another log on the fire, some milk on the stove and get that big fluffy towel out ready...
:: Share Your Experience ::
How do you go about capturing your ideas? What methods have worked for you? What new techniques can you introduce so more of your creative ideas evolve from something promising to something amazing?
Share your comments and experiences by just clicking on the comments link below.
Our creative ideas are the food, water and essential nutrients of our creative lives. Without new ideas, we’re stuck, stood still, lost without direction. Without an idea as a starting point, we can’t be creating.
So it follows, a steady flow of creative ideas is essential to maintain a healthy and constantly evolving and flourishing creative life.
And, the best part is, EVERYONE is capable of having great ideas. Ideas that can surprise us, springing up from nowhere and hit us firmly round the chops with a “I’m-just-so-obvious-why-haven’t-you-come-across-me-before?!” kind of audacity.
But having the ideas is often the easy part.
It’s what we do with them the moment AFTER they’ve given us that playful slap around the face that’s crucial.
How many of the great ideas you’ve had in your creative lifetime up to now would you say you’ve followed through and developed to their natural full potential? 75%? 50%? 10%?
What percentage of all the ideas you’ve had have been followed by the thought: “What a brilliant idea, I must make a note of it”, then forgotten just moments later, left to disappear lost forever back to the mysterious darkness from whence they came?
It’s likely the second number is significantly higher than the first.
Not recording our ideas in some way is the equivalent to leaving them standing cold and naked out in the rain. They’ll either catch pneumonia and die, or run for cover somewhere far away. Somewhere warm, dry and welcoming, where they’re welcomed in, wrapped in a huge soft towel and sat in a comfy chair by an open fire with a delicious mug of cocoa...
So what can we do to ensure we take better care of our ideas, and put more of them to good use?
The secret is in the recording of the idea and there are two key parts to this, each as essential:
Essential Part 1. WHEN we record the idea. This is so important. We must record the idea at the moment it hits us, while it’s fresh and vivid and most alive to us, ascending like a blazing shooting star against the night sky.
Leave it too long and it’s magic starts to fade, leave it longer still and it’ll slip from your memory quicker than a wet bar of soap dipped in baby oil.
Essential Part 2. In HOW MUCH DETAIL we record the idea. To give our idea the best possible chance to develop into something amazing, we must get its pure essence down quickly, yet in a richly detailed form.
We need to get a snapshot of the idea that’s as visual and memorable as possible. We want to capture the idea so strongly that when we return to it, whether that’s tomorrow, next week or next year, it bursts back off the page with all the energy and excitement as when it first came to us.
Do everything possible to catch this essence when the idea first hits, and you’ll find when you return to it it’s so much more inspiring and ready to grow into something incredible.
So, the next time a great new idea hits you, what are you going to do?
Leave it standing naked and shivering in the rain? Or welcome it in and nurture it?
Go on, put another log on the fire, some milk on the stove and get that big fluffy towel out ready...
:: Share Your Experience ::
How do you go about capturing your ideas? What methods have worked for you? What new techniques can you introduce so more of your creative ideas evolve from something promising to something amazing?
Share your comments and experiences by just clicking on the comments link below.
posted by Dan at 5:31 PM
As a Creativity Coach I work with people who are frustrated that their creative talents are underused. 
2 Comments:
I carry a sketchbook wherever I go. I have a moleskine reporter's notebook I use right now. Other times, I've used a 5 1/2" X 8 1/2" sketchbook.
I have my books since the college years (20 years). In the last five years, I've used a word processing file to make a note what's on a page. That way, I can use the computer to go back to a particular note. I use outline mode in the word processor and make a short note what's on a page.
This works for me since I am a cartoonist/writer/illustrator. I can get all the ideals in one format.
I use a typing pad to sketch my ideas. Its cheap but easy to draw or write on. I fling myself at it and brainstorm ideas, images,quotes, websites, words symbols and details. Good paper intimidates me. I tend to tip toe around it or try too hard which destroys the moment.
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