I love the thrill of having a great idea. Sometimes it comes out of nowhere, just appears in my head and makes me burst out laughing. Other times I can feel it coming on for days, but every time I try to grab on to it, it slips in to the shadows…. Until finally I look over my shoulder and it’s there… ready to greet me.

It’s seriously one of the best feelings, and one those of us in the creative fields actively try to nurture. We are trying to be creative on demand after all, and it’s a lot easier when you have a steady flow of ‘great ideas’.

But you know what’s the absolute worst? That moment after the great idea. Sometimes it’s instantaneous, and sometimes it waits for the next day as you’re re reading what you wrote, or listening back to a lesson.

That moment when a voice pipes up in your head and says “that’s so dumb. How did you ever think that was good? Not only is that idea dumb, but you’re soooo dumb for thinking of it, and then thinking it wasn’t dumb. DUMMMMMMMBBBBBB!”

If it’s a big idea it sounds something like… “how could you ever do that? You? Ugh. DUUUMMMB“

And if it’s a little thought: “you think doing just that is going to change anything? It’s not going to change anything. You’re so dumb.”

I hate feeling dumb. I hate feeling small. I hate feeling like I can’t.

And I hate that it’s me at the root of the problem.

The secret to doing anything new

I was deep in a Facebook dive one morning when a post by Elizabeth Gilbert came across my feed (author of Eat, Pray, Love). I’m a recent follower of hers, but a long time fan…. And I’ve got to say, her Facebook posts are just lovely.

That day’s gem ended up being exactly what I needed to hear.  She wrote:

“I encounter so many people who ask me the secret (people always want one secret) to creative living. I keep saying it, again and again: Gentleness.”

Gentleness.

It’s something that I’m very good at extending to everything and everyone outside of my own mind, body and soul. But to myself… not so much.

I love the thought of gentleness because it has none of the falseness of ‘confidence’ or ‘boldness’. It’s not about saying: my work is the greatest. My idea is the greatest. This new habit will change EVERYTHING!!

Gentleness says: so what if it’s not the best…. It’s still pretty cool. It says: That’s okay if this habit doesn’t fix everything, ’cause if it doesn’t… we’ll try something else.

Gentleness doesn’t mean you’re off the hook.

As much as I love the softness of a word like gentleness, it becomes an obvious trap.. especially for me.

Gentlessness doesn’t mean I’m off the hook. It doesn’t mean I don’t even have to try when things get a little rocky.

It’s a tool for the fight, not a note from my teacher letting me skip the struggle. In fact it’s the tool that pushes you forward because you don’t have to wait for the ‘perfect’ idea. You just keep on trying things, keep on creating.

Being creative is hard, whether it’s in a job or whether it’s in trying to find a solution to any life problem. When it comes to life, there tend not to be cookie cutter answers… every issue, every person… requires a different take.

How to balance work and family. How to balance a dream and a job (or how to mix them both together). How to live a fulfilled life now, but also build a stable life for the future.

That’s expert level stuff, and it’s going to need a whole lot of out of the box thinking to figure out.

A whole lot of creativity, and turns out… a whole lot of gentleness too.