How To Be A Wonderful Gardener And Nurture Your Creative Ideas

Sometimes it feels like our creativity is a once beautiful garden that’s now overgrown and choked with weeds. We know that underneath all this unwanted foliage we planted the seeds for some gorgeous plants – those initial creative ideas are all there and ready to be nurtured – but somehow the weeds have overtaken, using up all the nutrients and sunlight and robbing our tiny seedlings of the chance to flourish.

So how does this happen? Why, when we begin creative projects with the best of intentions and plant plenty of healthy seeds, do most of them barely even poke through the soil let alone grow into anything? Whereas the weeds – the unwanted negative thoughts and ideas we have in our minds – flourish like they’re being fed some Wonder-Grow type fertiliser?

The answer is simple: Whatever you focus on, grows.

If you plant seeds then don’t give them enough space, sunlight, water and nurturing attention, it doesn’t matter what quality of stock they come from, or how fabulous the blooms look in the picture on the seed packet, they simply won’t grow! Especially if at the same time you’re giving all this space, sunlight, water and nourishment to the weeds!

In your creative life this equates to giving all your energy and creativity to your negative thoughts, doubts and limiting beliefs. If each time you have the seed of an idea, you then switch your full attention to those negative thoughts, it’ll thwart the idea’s chances of coming to anything.

Here are some examples of these weeds, these kind of negative thoughts. See which you recognise:

• “I’m not sure it’s actually a very good idea after all, maybe I should choose another?”
• “My ideas are bigger than my talent, there’s no point trying to do anything with it, I’ll only mess it up, like all the other projects I’ve messed up.”>
• “I don’t have enough time to commit to developing this idea and doing it justice, so why start?”
• “The idea is great but no doubt I’ll fail to do anything with it, like with all the other good ideas I waste.”
• “It’s a good idea but not original enough, I bet others have done a far better job of turning a similar idea into something more worthwhile and creative.”

So obviously, if all your energy is channelled into these kind of thoughts, there’s not much left to bring those ideas into full blown creative projects!

Remember, whatever you focus on, grows. Focus on your creative ideas, they’ll grow. Focus on your negative thoughts and limiting beliefs, THEY’LL grow.

It’s a simple equation, and remember you have a choice in the kind of gardener you wish to be. Do you want to be known for your gorgeous prize blooms? Or for having the most overrun and weed choked plot in the area?

“Creativity Coach Dan Goodwin is the author of “Create Create!”, a
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