By Cynthia Morris
Recently, I was with a group of creative adventurers, and we were sharing our dreams with each other. One person’s story showed me the truth of something I’d suspected for a long time: what we consider an asset is actually a liability. Here’s what I mean.
As he described one project idea after another, I clearly saw his energy drain away from him. A film, a book, a new business, blog ideas…all these great ideas buzzed around his head. We listened and I know I wasn’t the only one who was initially excited, then drained by all the possibility.
He confessed that he wasn’t making satisfying progress with any of his ideas. Yet he still clung to the notion that having all these ideas was a good thing.
It struck me like a gong and I had to speak. “Your wealth of ideas is actually a liability,” I said. “Thinking that an abundance of inspiration is a good thing is actually holding you back.”
An abundance of ideas is only an asset if you consistently make and ship them.
No one wants to hear this. We love or precious and brilliant notions. You’ve probably said, “If only I could be paid for all my great ideas!”
But here’s the truth: ideas by themselves are worthless. The thing that makes a creative idea valuable is the sweat and tears and work that goes into making it real. Our creative ideas are nothing without the commitment and labor we bring to them.
Here’s where the true gold lies: our creative projects work us. Your great ideas are not going to make you happy perched in the attic of your imagination.
No. Your idea is going to make you happy because it’s going to demand the best that you’ve got to give and more. Because once your great idea is an actual reality, you’re going to be a different person. A better person.
This is why I spend my precious life coaching people to create their great work: we’re given these great ideas not so we can get our jollies from looking at them and talking about them. We’re given these flights of imagination so we can get on board, one idea after another, and pilot our way to best selves through the work they demand from us.
If you’re guilty of hoarding your ideas as a precious asset, drop it. Instead, commit to one asset at a time and build true creative wealth.
How about you? Have you turned the corner from thinking of your ideas as an asset only if you execute on them? I’d love to hear what you think about this. Please comment below.
Cynthia, I almost never see your posts until months later when I deliberately go looking for them. This one was right there, unmissable. Nailed it. Me. Ouch. Truth! Some part of me has been hinting at this for a long time. How did you know??? I’m grateful for getting the message today. Thank you for letting my Genie out of the bottle. Now I’m going to go lick my wounds over a comforting cup of tea. Next, I’m going to figure out a way to hire you sooner rather than later. Thank you!!
Bridget,
I’m glad this post resonated with you. And that it hit at the right time.
I’m sorry for any sting it caused, and I also know that sometimes we need the sting to wake us up to our truth.
You know I couldn’t have written this post if I weren’t just like you, full to the brim with wonderful ideas. And if I had not been paddling hard to drive the right ideas forward at the right time. Paddling for focus, paddling for alignment with myself and my mission, paddling to bring the right ideas into form.
So I commiserate with you and I also know that the real juice of life lies in executing on our ideas. I want that for you! I’d be happy to coach you to develop your bright idea(s). You know where to find me.
Thanks for reading and for commenting. It helps to know which posts work for my readers.
Let me add ditto to Bridget’s comment. I also noticed the ‘Just stop already.’ Ouch but well put.
In fact, I’ve been reading you for years and this is one of your best posts ever. The way you merged productivity, wealth creation, self help with creativity and away from how do I earn a living, how do I become famous, etc. is unique.
I need to floss, lift weights, walk, eat right and ship. I’ve actually been checking these off on a calendar all month. I’ve come home from all day religious services to madly type up a blog post as best as I can to keep the goals marching across the little September boxes.
I’m really shocked to see that muscle strengthen. I keep telling my husband – “I just whipped out a blog post after dinner. How did that happen?”
Shipping makes me feel strong. A list of projects makes me feel like I’ve eaten too much candy. I’m going to work on getting the blog in shape and running smoothly and work on the book after the holidays. And just take all those ‘I should learn this’ off the photography list for now. Whew.
Bobbi,
I love you. I love this comment you left. It shows such a maturity, one that you’ve earned. When I speak about creative maturity, it’s not like we are childish or immature. It’s that we’ve ripened enough to know which practices support our work. We have ripened to know how we best ship and execute on our ideas. It’s feeling a sense of knowing what is right for us and how we do it.
I LOVE the sense of relief and clarity you just shared by re-aligning your priorities. I LOVE that you have come to the place where MORE ideas is not better, and you feel it in your bones.
Now the real fun and power begins. Keep up your practices, and keep noticing how much they contribute to your creative work.
I’m proud of you and excited about what you are creating.
Thanks and back at ya! You’re the best! PS I’m also figuring out how to use your services!
Thanks, Bobbi! I’d love to coach you.
HI Cynthia, Like wise, been reading you for allot of years & this one hit the mark big time.
I consider creativity my thing. I get so excited by dreaming up the ideas without proper follow through, I just avoid doing by dreaming up more. For some time 6 years + my body has been saying enough with increasing aches and pains, finally I’m listening. You are correct creativity is for me an addictive habit, gone wrong into a liability. I’m stuck in a creative no mans land, I have so many ideas and will not drop any of them, I take action feel better, then stress out that I’m not doing them all. This is the cycle I need to break.
You say commit to one asses at a time, I say….. but one seems to feed the other!
Bottom line is…..it’s not working for me!
Great post
Cheers
Namaste
Jimu
Jimu,
I think you hit the nail on the head – ‘it’s not working for you’. My hope is that we can all figure out what works for us and what doesn’t.
I’ve written a lot on this blog about how to focus – knowing what your annual focus is, your monthly focus, etc. This practice helps me a lot:
https://www.originalimpulse.com/blog/too-much-on-plate-mindmap-sanity/
I think you are very resourceful and will find your way out of creative no man’s land very soon!
Cynthia
Great point. I have immersed myself in my writing. Lots of ideas. Have started what could be 4 books. Or is it 5? I need to choose. Choose and focus. Perhaps it is OK to choose 2 to work on for the variety and stimulation. I need to find the formula that works best for me. But I know and have been thinking a lot lately that having so many projects open is confusing and drains me.
Thanks
Tom,
Regarding the ability to work on two books at a time, I’d say very few people can do it. If you have a track record of successfully driving several projects over the finish line at once, I’d say focus on one.
Use a notebook for this book and gather any stray threads of ideas for other books in another notebook or file. Because they will pop up. They will want to steer you away from focusing.
Especially when you’re 2/3 of the way through the first book, it will suddenly seem like a good idea to work on the others. Don’t do it!
I’d love to know how focusing on one book feels for you. Do come back and let me know.
Cynthia, I attended your (awesome) workshop at WDS two years ago and follow you on FB. This is one of the best and most helpful posts that I have read since following your blog. Tough love, hard truths…so freeing. Thank you for the courage to call it the way you see it and sharing it.
Hey, Susan! Thanks so much for your feedback. It really helps me to know which of my articles resonate with readers. This one seems to have struck a chord. I think I finally took off the gloves – at the risk of a bit of a sting – and said it like I would say it in one of my classes.
Here’s to freedom!
Focus is so hard! I have an idea book for ideas I am afraid I’ll forget, but the good ones don’t leave anyway. It is amazingly difficult to move from an idea to a finished product but I think I’m finally getting the hang of it. 😀
Donna,
Right you are, and you would know. You serially execute your project ideas. Luckily you’ve learned what works for you and also know that getting help is the key.
I firmly believe that it’s in the work of finishing things that we find ourselves. Making art or writing or building a business will show us everything we need to know to become our best selves. You’re well on your way!
I forgot to say I love the idea book practice. Not only do you feel like you’re honoring all that creative abundance, you can look over the ideas for patterns. You can see how your creativity expresses itself and see how several ideas may actually be one big idea, etc.
While reading your post I had a “hit the nail on the head” moment. Then I read the comments left by others and they had the same reaction. I’m a “work-in-progress” but I see it’s less about “work” and more about “progress” and sometimes that means letting stuff go! How does a writer/artist know what to nurture and what to put on the back burner? My approach is to talk it over with others and get feedback from people you trust who know you and what you do.
Sharon,
So glad this was illuminating for you! You are right – we are works in progress. Ah, this human life!
I think that’s one of the big challenges – culling out ideas and knowing what to focus on. I’m always keeping my big picture in mind – what am I trying to achieve, what is my focus for the year.
Then it’s a process of experimentation. And intuition. Sometimes the best business advice leads us down the wrong path.
Getting feedback from the right people helps enormously.
Thanks for commenting! I am glad you feel a sense of clarity.
Bless you, Cynthia, for writing this post. I appreciate how you walk your talk. I appreciate how you draw others out to comment as they have here. They, too, teach the rest of us with their insights that turn into subtle gifts (spelled nudges). Soundbytes I’m taking away: focus, completions, daily checkmarks, building muscles to creative maturity. Thanks for this heart and soul food!
Thank you, Debra! I love it, too, when something I write or say sparks new insights and conversation. I’m grateful for readers who are receptive to being nudged.
Thank you for calling my work heart and soul food. That means a lot to me.
I appreciate you!
Sweet xoxox
Yes! Thank you for another wise outlook on keeping myself reigned in and on my path. “The attic of your imagination”…what a great visual for me! Clean it out…REALLY….. dust off those GOOD ideas and put them in the front room — get them done. I am familiar with this hoarding of ideas but haven’t thought of it that way. I AM getting the good habit of constantly checking in with myself to be sure I’m not veering into unproductive time stealers. Painting time has improved and now I am looking for ways to shave off even more time from necessary daily tasks to spend that time in my studio. Great post Cynthia…I still am getting benefits from our sessions and all you blog posts/newsletters. You are great!
Susan,
Thanks for commenting! I am glad to hear you have more studio time these days. I’m also happy knowing you’re re-aligning with your ideas.
Thanks for your kind words, and I am glad our coaching is still operating and that you are painting!
“Passion is energy and momentum.” – Jean Houston
Great insight, Cynthia – I am reminded that it’s not the idea that’s as important as the intention and action that you put behind it. I’ll be refining my “ideas” and hope to kick something in gear real soon!
Hi Cynthia,
I echo what Bridget and Bobbi said (and the others too) – my reaction is Yes and also Ouch.
This summer I’d been struggling with letting certain ideas/dreams/back burner stuff drop off of my mental plate. What to let go? what to ignore? Too much swirling around (in the head) not enough focus and completion. How annoying to let a beautiful summer slide by with all of these anxious monkeys loose in my head! ; ) Liabilities!
After a fantastic vacation in Colorado at the end of August, with lots of fresh air, sunshine, friends, music, dancing!, I pulled out of my funk. Clarity returned. I finally get it – and you described it so eloquently: I’ve been carrying around this monster Ideas and Should/Must Do list like a ball and chain. Liabilities! Here are a few of the decisions I’ve made to “Be Frances”
1) *Gently* ‘back burner’ 90% of that list so that I can focus only on the juiciest morsels:
This includes excellent “FCF-time”: fresh air, good food, music and dancing, enough sleep, knitting and journaling – all the fun stuff that gives me my mojo energy; and then adding only the truly awesome things that make me come alive right now with the time I can devote to my business.
Boy – my head feels so much better! And my shoulders aren’t as sore carrying around that heavy ball n chain!
I’ve made peace (for the moment) with the big FCF list: Those dreams ideas and plans may or may not come to fruition -ever. And that’s OK. Until I decide what to do with them, I’ve placed them in a nice, safe and cozy incubator (on paper in a pretty journal (cover CLOSED) where they can sit and wait for my full attention/focus, or the day when I release them as “not-delight worthy” for my attention.
2) Another biggie for me is limiting the amount of INPUT I’m getting from the myriad amazing helpful newsletters, posts etc from all over the globe. Ditto for books and articles that had been piling up/scattered about my desk. While I do benefit from most of what I read, there’s still this psychic pressure that happens for me, especially for lots of the biz-themed reading I do: monkeys whispering “Frances, you really should be doing X, Y, and Z, right now! Hurry!” Deciding to not read it all has cut back my stress/anxiety a bunch. I’ve even created a separate mailbox for all of my newsletter subscriptions – so I can choose not to even open it until I’m ready for input!
Since I love to read, I’m turning instead to good books on audio that I’m listening to while I sew and paint. Pure joy!
3) it’s time to ask for help! A lot of my anxiety is self-induced: there’s just no way I can physically tackle a giant list of ideas and to-dos, especially when there is a learning curve to much of it. So for the juiciest projects that remain on my plate, I’m taking an honest look at what I can actually do myself, and what makes sense to delegate/hire out so that the project doesn’t languish for lack of my expertise or time. And then, (gulp) find and get that help!
4) Making peace with where I am right now – and honoring all of the steps I’ve taken and what I’ve learned along the way.
Voila! I hadn’t intended to write a long reply – but there’s so much goodness here to absorb, reflect and respond to.
As ever, I’m super thankful that you, Cynthia my dear, are sharing your gifts and your collected pearls of wisdom of your journey with us. Your newsletter and posts continue to fuel and inspire me and I adore you! There, I’ve said it all.
Yay!
In Delight and Gratitude!
Frances