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  • Home
  • About
    • The Happy Fan Club
  • Offerings
    • Redesign Your Life 2.0
    • Get Creative
    • Personal Coaching
  • Creativity Conversations
  • LET'S CONNECT!
  • Blog
    • Live Free Your Way
    • Seeing Things Differently
    • Mistaking Assumptions for Truth
    • How Humor Keeps Us Sane
    • Know Thyself
    • Peach Pie for Breakfast
    • Explore Experience Express
    • Should You Be Downshifting?
    • Stop the Hustle!
    • Do Your Habits Serve or Sabotage
    • Settle Down? Down Where?
    • What Lights You Up?
    • Saying Yes When Your Mind Says No
    • Independence From What?
    • Letting Ourselves Off the Hook
    • Letting Go of Assumptions
    • Is Kindness Allowed?
    • How to Throw a Wrench in the Works
    • Happiness
    • Daring to be Lighthearted
    • What Happens When You See Things Differently
    • Find Delight in Everyday Life
    • Are You Saying What Needs to Be Said
    • Is Your Life in Alignment
    • Are You Trapped by Your Past
    • Can You Love Your Life
    • The Hallmark of Creativity
    • Out Of Ideas?
    • Waking Up to a New World
    • Are You a Possibilitarian?
    • Want to Love Your Life?
    • Is Creativity Necessary
    • What's Stopping You?
    • An Unexpected Discovery
    • Free Your Mind
    • Is Your Creative Genius Hiding
    • Empty Headed or Clear Minded?
    • Is Stress Really Necessary?
    • Will Creativity Improve Your Life?
    • Is Creativity In Your Future?
    • Replace Fear With Love
    • How to Get Out of Your Own Way
    • Just Take A Moment
    • You Don't Have To - You Get To
    • The Good News About Being Stuck
    • Interested in Inner Freedom?
    • Are You a Hoarder?
    • What Remains
    • Co-vid 19 Free Pass to the Roller Coaster
    • Grace Under Pressure
    • Now is the Time To Notice
    • Hanging With the Wrong Crowd
    • Make Your Life Simpler
    • What Could Be Different For You
    • Everything is a Miracle
    • Do You Have A Negativity Bias
    • Are You Really Seeing Or Just Assuming?
    • Happiness and Resilience
    • Wherever You Go, There You Are
    • Is Stress Making You Sick?
    • What I Wish My Humans Knew
    • Looking Backwards
    • Daring to Change Course
    • Lost in Thought or Taking Action?
    • Still Can't Focus?
    • Do Your Thoughts Get Dark and Gloomy?
    • Can't Focus?
    • An Instant Formula for New Ideas
    • Talk Yourself Out of Another Great Idea?
    • Is Your Busyness Keeping You From Getting Things Done?
    • What's that Feeling In the Pit of My Stomach?
    • How Cool is This?
    • How to Make Your New Year Happier
    • Why Be Open To Life?
    • Simple Ways to Transform Your Life
    • Get Clarity and Confidence
    • Are You Driven by Fear or Love?
    • The Number One Way to Keep Your Vision Alive and Well
    • Why Stop Trying to Figure it Out?
    • What Are You Trying to Prove?
    • Do Your Goals Reflect Your Hearts Desire
    • Why My Cat is My Spiritual Teacher
    • Surviving the Holidays
    • 3 Convincing Reasons
    • 3 Secrets to Enjoying the Holidays
    • 5 Quick Steps to Get Your Mojo Back
    • 3 Ways to Keep Your Energy High
    • 5 Reasons to Do Good
    • Pain Relief for the Soul
    • Tired of Living by the Rules? Go Rogue!
    • What? You've Made a Mess? Excellent!
    • Why You Need to Be Inspired Now
    • Change Your Life in Just 48 Hours?
    • The Cure For Mental Overload
    • 5 Infallible Ways to Stay Inspired
  • Newsletter

An Instant Formula for New Ideas

4/17/2019

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Picture
Here's the formula: Notice what’s in front of you.

Now, you might be indignantly wondering, what’s that supposed to mean?? What if you want something other than what’s in front of you (which might seem like nothing)? I’ve often been in that situation: I think I’m overdue for a “download” of a new idea - clearly I’ve got my own agenda which has it’s own timeline - but nothing seems to be coming to me. Then I get impatient (which is a clear sign that my thinking is off). I lose my receptivity when I want the whole idea to come fully formed into my mind and out my hands, as if I were Mozart, simply acting as the scribe for a symphony that’s rushing to get onto the paper.


Throughout business, the scientific realm, the art world and in private life, there are tons of examples of people having ideas that seem to come fully formed, or at least formed enough, without a lot of struggle or angst. Isn’t that what we all want? Voila! Who doesn’t want inspiration and it’s expression to be easy? But frequently, what isn’t mentioned is the fact that ideas have their own mysterious process for manifestation - both in what form and to whom. They come when they come, and most of the time ideas come when we aren’t putting pressure on ourselves, demanding those ideas to come to us now. There’s even research that’s been done on how common it is for ideas to come to someone in the shower, or after taking a nap or a walk in nature. Just as a pregnant mother can’t force a baby to come before it’s ready just because she herself thinks it’s time, we can’t force ideas to come before those ideas are ready. They have a life of their own, a momentum, and it just never ends well when we try to insist they appear.

What always does go ever so much better is when we let ourselves settle down and let go of wanting something that doesn't appear to be showing up right then. Here’s what I mean. Recently, I had a deadline for a project and no idea of how to accomplish it. I didn’t even have a good starting point. I got more and more annoyed and frustrated, I took a break, had a nice snack to soothe myself, and then I glanced through a magazine. Suddenly it dawned on me that I’d been trying to force something to come to mind. As soon as I realized that, the proverbial (mental) decks were cleared and my ability to be receptive expanded. Immediately I noticed an idea that was probably right in front of me all along but I wasn’t really open to it. Just like when we search for something, like our keys or our glasses and we can’t find them. As soon as we take a break or a breath, there they are, right under our noses.

Life keeps giving us these wonderful reminders that magic happens when we’re open and willing to “just be and just see,” instead of trying to force something to happen. When we tell ourselves there’s a deadline or a responsibility or an expectation, it’s as though we’re holding out our hands to receive, but in actuality our hands are two tightly clenched fists. When we open our hands, palms upward, knowing we’re not in control, the ideas seem to know that we’re ready to receive them.
​

I’d love to hear about your experiences - whether they conform to what I’ve described or they’ve been something else entirely. Drop me a line or two here and I’ll respond to you directly.
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