There Is No Such Thing As A Bad Idea (?)
I don't necessarily think that I'm an expert on the subject of creativity, but throughout my time making music, designing buildings and making arty things, I've had to overcome a lot of my own inner demons; usually I tend to be my own worst critic, and at times, I can be really harsh on my ideas.
I wanted to write a blog post about how I've learnt to overcome some of these "mind obstacles.”
Is There Such A Thing As A Bad Idea?
In a world where it’s so competitive to stand out (whether that be in the field of music, architecture, design, fashion, art or whatever it is that you may do), I believe that it’s important to cherish and to nourish your ideas, in order to come up with something that is unique, creative and beautiful.
My motto:
Cultivate creativity - treat each idea with acceptance, love and respect.
I want to share with you the creative process that I learnt through studying architecture. It’s a process that is about throwing as many ideas to the table as possible.
Let’s look at it like this:
The Funnel
Ideas go in. Ideas are filtered. Results come out.
During this process, all of the initial ideas are crucial to the filtration process and also to the outcome.
However, during the ideas and filtration process, it’s important to catch yourself thinking things that may look and sound like this:
“This idea isn’t good enough”
“No that won’t work”
“No that’s stupid people/they will hate this”
“what am I thinking”
Or even thoughts like this:
“I’m stupid”
“I’m not good enough,”
(just to name a few)...
The Tree Branch
Lets use the the tree branch diagram as an example. Lets say you were brainstorming ideas, but you stopped coming up with new idea’s after the first few.
In this example, many ideas that contributed to the outcome, came later on in the development stage. And they wouldn’t have been possible without the cultivation of new ideas throughout the creation process.
You never know where new ideas may lead you! Or how they may influence decision making later on in the creation process.
Set Your Mind Free
Our minds can play funny tricks on us and we can tell ourselves some really mean things sometimes - especially when it comes to our ideas. The trick is to free yourself from these thoughts.
Tell yourself that all of the ideas that you come up with (or the ideas of others around you) are beautiful. All ideas are good ones!
If you have any comments or things you’d like to add, make sure you leave them in the comment section below? I’d love to hear of any stories that you may have!
Lots of love!
Stephen Carmichael
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