Nurturing your Ideas Tree

Herman Najoli and I (though continents apart) seem to have been on the same wavelength this week. I too have been thinking about ideas. In particular, how to cultivate them.

Do you know the frustration of sitting down to write a blog post, an article, a seminar, a sermon, a love letter, a song … and nothing comes to you?

Maybe it’s not Writer’s Block per se; perhaps it’s a simple scarcity of ideas. I believe each of us has a part of our brains which is like a tree on which ideas grow. When we feed and nurture the Ideas Tree, inspiration will come.

Fertilizer.

Let’s face it: crap happens to all of us; it’s just the intensity and frequency that differs. As does each person’s response…

Perhaps you know people who turn their misfortune into “ music”, who mine the proverbial silver lining.

The retrenched art teacher I spoke with yesterday who – when told you’ll never teach again – asked herself the question “Well, where are my art skills appreciated and financially valuable?” and went on to found five successful home businesses, win shelves full of awards and remake her life.

The consultant [see Robert Sutton] who turns his experiences of malicious, sadistic, callous bosses and colleagues into a book and blog that empower people and potentially transform workplaces.

This is more than finding ways to turn your trash into cash. We’re talking about a habit of drawing inspiration and ideas from negative experiences. So, what needs to change in the way you think of your misfortune & setbacks so that they become fertilizer feeding your Ideas Tree?

Water.

My country Australia is currently experiencing its worst ever drought. Maybe it’s El Nino, global warming or just the natural cycle of a very dry land.  Wherever you go in my city, you see dying lawns and wilting gardens. And because we can only water and gardens  during two 2-hour periods’ each week [or with “grey water” we have collected in buckets while we shower], we’re very careful where and what we water. We water only the plants we care about most, that will die without our attention.  We water around the roots rather than spraying water randomly around the garden bed.

Optimism, security, spontaneity, anticipation, wellness – these are the roots of the Ideas Tree. How much effort do you spend in cultivating them? How could you focus your attention and nurture of these things to better water them?

Care.

Some plants need pruning, some suffer when weeds grow nearby or when pests feed on them. Perhaps there’s value in assessing the tasks, the relational dynamics, the self-talk in your life to see if any are actually noxious, life sapping, detrimental.

Waiting. 

Here’s the hardest part, as the great philosopher Tom Petty wrote. All of the above involve some form of doing. Now comes the not-doing. Any gardener or Farmer will tell you: you can’t force fruit or flowers to grow. You do what you can, then you wait. The ideas will come.

The Ideas Tree is like most things in life: take care of it and it will take care of you.