Our ideas are seeds, it is up to us to cultivate them.
We’ve all been there. We’re inspired by a thought, idea, or a project that captures our imagination. In fact, we’re so captivated that we can already see that idea fulfilled: waking up to our new thriving business, seeing our new book on the shelves, receiving the reviews and accolades that this brilliant idea is destined to create. As fast as that inspiration comes you see that idea fulfilled, in all its glory but not by you.
It’s already been done.
And with that the idea is consigned to the graveyard of ‘if only I’d got there first.’ You go about your day carrying the weight of disappointment, deflated by that missed opportunity.
How many ideas a day go through this momentary life? Conceived as quickly as they’re consigned.
What is the impact of all these ideas remaining unfulfilled? The impact on us, the impact on the world?
What if it didn’t have to be this way? What if we could move forward either at peace that the idea is fulfilled or with a renewed feeling of purpose to pursue an idea.
What are we assuming here?
In all the times I’ve put down an idea only to see it realised elsewhere by someone else a familiar train of thought plays itself out.
I can’t do it, someone already has. No one will want another one of this. Anyway, even if I did have a go it’s never going to be as good as theirs. And even then, I’d have to work so hard – even harder given it exists – and maybe it still wouldn’t get there.
If it didn’t matter that this had been done or exists, or if you’d never known the idea had been done before what would you do?
The answer still may be nothing.
In fact, it isn’t just because they’ve been done before that we disregard or let go of our ideas.
The themes played out above are so often just a reframing of common barriers we have to following our intuitive ideas? Notably
What will others think (No one will want another one of this)
Am I good enough (it’s never going to be as good as theirs; maybe it still wouldn’t get there)
The vulnerability of devoting to something without knowing the outcome (I’d have to work so hard….and maybe it still wouldn’t get there)
What do we lose, as individuals and as a society, by all the ideas that are never pursued because of the doubts we have? Doubts about our worth, about how what we’ll do will be received, and uncertainty.
What if we reframed how we approach our intuitive ideas so that we more consciously choose what we do with these ideas, so that we recognise our resourcefulness, creativity and potential and at the same time free us from what we cannot control?
Ideas are seeds
Imagine our ideas are seeds.
For the seed to grow we need to provide it the right conditions: soil, water, sun, temperature. We need to regularly tend to the seed as it grows, continue to water it, provide and adjust the conditions to best suit the plant, to prune and care for it. Finally, all being well we can harvest the fruit of the plant and we’re given more seeds.
Now anyone who has ever tended to a plant will know that the above is never plain sailing. In fact we can’t control all the conditions that may allow the plant to grow, the seed may never even germinate. In the same way the success of an idea is as much a product of the time and place as it is what we give to it.
So, now we know we have all these seeds, some more promising than others, how would you approach them?
Choosing our seeds
We can now choose which seeds we want to plant, how much we want to give to cultivate them, what do we want from their harvest? Which are crops and which are houseplants? What conditions can we create or cultivate?
And invariably some people will have the same seeds. But what they grow will differ based on the conditions they have, their own unique approach to cultivating and growing, their own hopes, wants and needs from that plant, different people to feed or to share or offer their plants and harvests.
If ideas are seeds and we never planted them where would we be?
And if that seed doesn’t ever grow, what can we take from the experience? What conditions may need changing? What may we be missing?
If ideas are seeds, what do we lose as individuals and as society by not consciously choosing which ones to plant and grow?
What would it be like to approach your next idea as a seed? Your seed, regardless of what others have grown, your seed to choose whether to plant it or put it aside.
If you could pick one of your seeds to plant, right now, what would you do? What would it feel like to know it is planted? What could it grow?
What could we all grow if we peacefully, consciously put some seeds aside and purposefully, passionately planted others?
