My Idea was dying in my hands, and I needed it to live

Sep 22, 2021

Creativity is a powerful force. Creativity helps us to see things in new and different ways, which can lead to the creation of something that has never been created before.

When you have a creative idea, you must have the resources right then and there to breathe life into the idea. Every second that goes by, is another second closer to death for your idea.⁣

Unfortunately, there is a high price to creativity and if you don’t have the resources, your idea will simply die.⁣ When I say resources, I am talking about “YOU” resources.

In the early stages of my business, when it was barely breathing, I remember being physically and mentally drained and not being able to focus, and questioning if I could come up with the needed ideas to continue being successful.⁣

Here are the top 5 things that steal from the creative resources⁣

⁣• 𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬, Our attention and focus fuel our creativity. If we ignore it, all of the energy needed to generate ideas will be lost and scatter throughout time and space like a burst balloon floating away into nothingness.⁣

Good ideas come from good conditions! Well sometimes they don’t but in this case you do need some sort of facilitative environment for your brain to work its magic! Sometimes we can get so busy that the conditions become cluttered which then leads to mental clutter where nothing gets done (and therefore no new creative thoughts are born).⁣

 Emotions are powerful drivers of creativity because they help us tap into our imagination and thinking in new ways. But if we don’t manage our emotions properly, there is no way for them to serve as positive resources which will shut down your creativity before it’s even started!⁣

Negative emotions or thoughts can block our ability to focus on an idea. If you are feeling unhappy at the moment, it will be near impossible for your brain to accept any new ideas. Instead of pushing through and forcing yourself, let’s just wait until we’re in a better place emotionally before continuing with anything creative.

 𝐅𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐠𝐮𝐞, When we are exhausted, whether it’s physical fatigue, emotional fatigue, Intellectual fatigue. these all take away from our ability to be creative. When we are exhausted, our resources are depleted and there’s no way you can come up with creative ideas when that is what is at the forefront of your mind. Your focus goes into ‘surviving’ instead of coming out with something new.⁣

We are not giving ourselves any chances at success by not taking care of our health. If our bodies are fatigued it will take away from the resources we have left which will affect our ability to for creativity.

 Negative self-talk shuts down creativity because it starts telling us things like “I’m not good enough” or “this idea will never work!” These thoughts force themselves on top of any positive⁣ creative ideas.

• 𝐃𝐞𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 of any kind, this could be emotional, physical, or even chemical. If we have a lack of sleep or are inebriated, it can kill our creativity.⁣

Fixing your schedule so you have time to take care of yourself and being able to fit creative work into “scheduled” time vs. just having no scheduled times for anything will actually give you more energy when you do sit down to create! You’ve given your mind the gift of control which automatically makes things easier (and better) than trying to find inspiration out there in the world when you’re already exhausted from defeating distractions at every turn.    

• 𝐓𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐬, when your nervous system detects a threat, it will HALT creative in its tracks, aka Fight or flight. This survival instinct doesn’t only happen when you are in the wild fighting for your life. It happens anytime there is a perceived threat or stressor which can be anything from an argument with someone to just worrying about money, etc.⁣

When you are in any of these modes, everything feels like a huge problem and the idea of coming up with something new seems totally impossible. This is when we need to learn how to manage creativity killers so that it doesn’t affect our creativity negatively!

The best way I’ve found to help calm my mind and feel better about creating again is meditation. When I meditate for 20 minutes in the morning (before any other commitments) or in the evening (after work), I immediately start feeling more relaxed and ready to take on anything because my body has been able to reset itself from distractions/stressors which were taking over before.