Use your creative highs to create more
There's a recurring theme in my writing that my inspiration strikes me in the morning. Maybe there's another article in there, but I'll leave that for another time. This morning while driving to a local coffee shop, my wife and I discussed an old joke about an idea we had for a restaurant. That one drawn out joke ended up turning into about an hour of brainstorming that lasted well after we got back home.
Ironically, after coming up with what seemed like a business plan we laid out our next steps for this spur of the moment idea. At that moment I was riding high on a feeling of creativity. I had forced myself to move forward on what would have felt like was a waste of time two hours prior, and now we realized had created something out of nothing.
I thought to myself, "I can't just let this energy dissipate so quickly." Out loud I challenged my wife to help me come up with another idea for a business, but more specifically some type of app because that's my specialty. She pushed back saying we should focus on what we had just uncovered.
You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.— Maya Angelou
Despite the my wife's protest and her correct assessment for the task ahead, I sat in that chair on our deck with nothing in mind but the need to discover one more opportunity. I had no idea as to why I was engaging in this activity. With no direction other than I wanted to create something to benefit a nonprofit, I sat and thought. After another hour or two of brainstorming and the help of a friend for counsel, I had generated one more nugget of an opportunity.
Now, I should premise that I will probably receive a lot of criticism for painting a rosy picture of two small, potential, business ideas. Yes there is research to be done and most likely failure in my future. With those in mind, I happily acknowledge and accept them.
How does one become good at anything? Fill in your choice of sport or activity here. The answer? Say it with me, "Practice!" Like anything we value and we want to improve, we need time to practice, to become better, more informed and more intuitive. I want to know how to fail faster, receive rejection with an open mind, and persevere when necessary.
No one wants to fail. We all want to be avid creators and most importantly victorious. If we choose to fear failure and utilize it as an excuse, then we betray our own ambition. We should see failure as an opportunity of its own. Would you choose to struggle to keep a ship afloat that was going down regardless of what you did? We should embrace failure as a more available time to work on our next idea.
Like anything, start now. Likewise, don't squander the creative juice fountain for arbitrary reasons. Settling on what's right in front of your nose for any reason in this context is a waste. Continuing iteration and ideation do not invalidate your previous creations. If anything, it informs them. We must keep failing to find the next hit, just like we must work harder every day to make our ideas a success.