Like most ordinary humans, my monkey mind leads me into self-doubt and anxiety. But it also carries me into daydreams—into a constant stream of ideas: the next project, a new direction, another path to explore. I am flooded with “what ifs” and “maybes.”

That might sound like a gift for an artist. And in many ways, it is—I have never really suffered from creative block. But the truth is, I often feel overwhelmed, weighed down by the sheer number of ideas I carry. Can you hear the sigh? It holds a quiet guilt, a sense that I am wasting something given.

I simply do not have the time or energy to pursue them all. Not in this lifetime. And so the weight shifts—from having ideas to having to choose. Which path is mine to follow? What needs to be expressed now?

A trusted friend once said, very matter-of-factly, that I need not do them now. It brought a moment of relief. Not everything demands immediacy. There is another way: less reaction, more patience. Waiting, it seems, has its own clarity.

For years, I have been writing these fragments into one of my handmade journals dedicated to “ideas.” They rest there in a quiet home, held rather than lost. Some return, and when they do, they are mulled upon at the back of my mind. In time, I have learned to pay attention.

I have come to value this slow deepening. With time, and with the life I continue to live, these ideas mature. What emerges is no longer just an idea, but something more considered—an expression that feels true.

Perhaps not every idea is meant to be made. But the ones that return… are.

 

Does waiting upon an idea deepen your creativity – or quietly diminish it?