A creative garden is the space you set up to play with new ideas to see how they grow. It’s like an incubator for cool ideas and inspirations you want to simmer a bit longer. The seeds you plant could be for your business, career or personal life – whatever feels intriguing but doesn’t require immediate action.
The class you were thinking of attending or developing? It’s a seed in your creative garden. Your latest passion for biking? It’s in there too. Thinking of trying your hand at making a podcast? Into the creative garden it goes to grow into a more fully formed idea.
When you start to take stock of things you love, or plant for later, it’s easy to forget your creative garden needs a little weeding once and a while. Not everything holds the same excitement over time. In some cases, resources dry up or timing lapses, making an opportunity or idea no longer viable or interesting.
So when was the last time you checked in on your creative garden? Are things growing strong? Getting ripe? Blooming big and tall?
Or are they looking a little wilty and brown, being drowned out by weeds of neglect, fear, distraction or long overdue expiration dates?
Time to Root Through the Creative Garden and Examine the Bounty
It’s more than OK to leave a creative garden on auto-pilot while you enjoy what summer (in the northern hemisphere) has to offer. Play is one of the best ways to open up creative channels and tune into the moment for new ideas.
However, there comes a time when the garden becomes a bit overcrowded, or the ideas you are holding for safe keeping become stuck in a time warp, wrapped in the energy and thought patterns of an older version of you. It happens to the best of us – you have a folder with “great ideas” hidden away in a drawer and soon enough, six months have gone by and your idea seeds are languishing in the garden, unattended.
Instead of getting down on yourself or giving into overwhelm, take a positive action step forward and commit to doing ONE thing – some weeding.
Forget about ripping through everything to try and clear out all the weeds at once (unless that’s your way). It’s doable, but a bit intense, and may even cause you to overreact and remove things that may be valuable later in a different form.
It’s easiest to start with what you think the weeds ARE.
Here’s a quick go-to checklist for how to find the weeds and see what makes sense as a next step:
- Is this idea something I will take action on this year? When – in the next 6 months, 3 months? Give it a time frame. Then put the idea in a place you can actually see it every day.
- Do I need help to get this idea off the ground? If so, who can help? Start researching resources.
- Is the idea still viable in it’s current form, or does it need tweaks, updates or more research?
- Is there something, or someone, getting in the way of pursuing this idea further? How can I reduce the friction or let it go?
- Would I be OK never pursuing this idea, ever?
This will help you scoop out the biggest offenders more closely examine (and nurture) what’s left behind.
Growing the Essentials
Once you’ve cleared out what no longer has positive momentum or light, creativity is so much closer! With a clearer head and more space, powerful ideas can breathe and you are able to feed them the essentials to grow big and strong. Ideas a great motivators when you give them the power to succeed, and success starts with mindfulness of what you are holding onto and what you are willing to set free.
It’s also important to tend your creative garden regularly. After the first round of weeding, choose a time every 6 months or so to root through the dirt, keeping things fresh and current.
What are some of your weeds? Are you willing to let them go so your other ideas have more attention and light?
Photo credit: Garden tools Christopher Sessums