Episode 78: How to Have More Creative Ideas

Hello creative soles! I hope you’re having a beautiful day so far, wherever you are. Did you remember to wear not-boring socks? If you did, I would love to hear about them! Send me a message, I would love to hear about them! I love fun socks (obviously, that’s why I have a podcast called Never Wear Boring Socks!) - and the socks that I’m wearing today are dark blue and they have colorful pineapples on them which is tangentially related to today’s topic because I would say, let me know if you agree with this, that colorful pineapples on socks is a pretty creative idea. And today what we’re talking about is how to have more creative ideas, and I’m really excited to talk about this today.

Because I think as creative people and as artists, this is something we are always looking for. Why? Well, to make good work, we have to start with good ideas. Things start internally - they start as an inkling of inspiration, an inspired vision - before they become something real and physical. That could probably be a metaphor for a lot of other things as well…but for now we’ll stick to creativity. 

Have you ever sat down to work on a creative project and you just don’t feel like you have any ideas? You don’t have anything to write about? You don’t know what you want to paint? The words or the images or the music just isn’t flowing? First, you are not alone. I think we all struggle with this from time to time. I know I certainly do. 

I think it’s normal to have ebbs and flows - I think we all have phases with lots of creative ideas and then we have phases where we feel a little stuck. I think that’s important to remember, because it’s easy to get caught up in thinking that whatever we’re experiencing right now will last forever. It’s also easy to feel like there’s something wrong with you or you’re not a good artist or a good writer or you’re not a creative person if you don’t have creative ideas right now - and I just want to say that that is not the case! You are still a creative person even if you feel stuck right now. And how do I know that? Because I firmly believe that everyone is a creative person. You included. 

However, I do know how frustrating those times of stuckness can feel. And sometimes it feels like there is a lot more stuckness than creativity and inspiration, and I don’t think THAT has to be the case. I think that we do have some control over the ratio here between the stuckness nad the creative ideas, and I think we can take action to shift this and invite more creativity and inspiration. 

I think the best way to do this is to just start creating. The more you create, the more creative ideas you have. At least, that’s what I’ve experienced. It’s like a muscle, so if you want to have strong legs, you can’t just sit on your couch waiting until your legs feel strong. I mean you could, but good luck. You have to go do the work of strengthening them, even if you don’t feel strong in the process, because that’s the only way that they’re going to get stronger. And I believe it’s the same way with creativity. I think it’s much more effective to start creating and build up that creative ideas muscle, than it is to sit around and wait for creative ideas to come. I feel like I always when I start saying creativity I say creative and when I start saying creative I say creativity so apologies if the emphasis is on the wrong syllable. But going on…

So thinking about this in terms of building creative ideas, creativity as a muscle - Perhaps thinking about it in that way is already creating a shift in how you’re thinking about creative ideas. But perhaps you already know this on some level, but you’re still feeling stuck and uninspired. If that’s the case, my question for you is: are you really making time and space for your art consistently? Or, is something getting in the way? 

If something is getting in the way, what is it? In my experience, the thing that has stopped me in this part of the creative process is usually the frustration of making “bad” art. It doesn’t feel good to make creative work in an uninspired state, because it usually doesn’t turn into my best work. And I don’t know about you, but I have very high standards for myself. This is something I’ve really been working on, because my perfectionist streak can be very damaging at times. 

Because my standards are so high, it feels gross to make art that I don’t think is good. HOWEVER, I really believe we need to lean into the discomfort here to some extent. I’m not saying you should sit in your studio all day every day just banging your head against the wall. Like we talked about a couple of episodes ago, I really believe it’s also important to go out and live your life and also to have fun because play and fun and living all nurture creativity as well. 

What I AM saying is that you should make time to work on your art consistently. Not all day, perhaps not even every day, but consistently. Could you do 30 minutes every weekday? 30 minutes every other day? 10 minutes every day? What can you commit to? My suggestion is to figure that out, and then commit to it. In my experience, this has been the biggest shift in allowing me to have more creative ideas. When I’m consistently on a regular basis getting my brain into a creative state, I tend to think more creatively. Not only in my creative work, but also in the rest of my life. It’s sort of like turning on a faucet - it starts with this little drip, and then with time it starts to turn on more and more fully. And once your creative ideas are flowing more freely, it feels better to make art. And I just think you just have to work through some moments of discomfort to get to the good stuff sometimes.

And I want to be clear that it’s not that everything is all sunshine and rainbows and creative inspiration for days and days forever once you’ve done this, and that you’ll never make anything again that you don’t like - we are all humans like I said we all have ebbs and flows. But overall, I really believe that more creativity makes room for more creativity. 

The other reason I think we often stay stuck in the uninspired phase and we don’t consistently make time for our art is because we don’t have the systems set up to support us. It’s hard to stay committed sometimes if you don’t have people in your life who are really helping you do that. This could be an accountability buddy, a writing class, a coach… I think the most helpful people to have in your corner here, in my experience, are people who are encouraging and kind, who will also hold you accountable. 

As usual, I’d like to invite you to reflect on a few things to get the most juice out of this episode. So here are a few questions you might want to ponder: 

• Are you consistently making time and space for your creative work? (pretty sure I’ve asked this before, but it’s an important one) 

• Are you allowing yourself to experience and work through the discomfort that arises when you make work that isn’t “your best work?” Or do you give up when things get uncomfortable, and automatically move onto something else? 

• Do you have at least one person in your life who is really supporting your creative practice? If not, what could you do to change that? 

If you do know that you could use a creative support person in your life who will encourage you and also hold you accountable, I want to invite you to work with me one-on-one if that feels good for you. I’m accepting applications for creativity coaching now, and I am so excited to support you in this way. We’ll have coaching calls to work through anything that is getting in the way when it comes to your creative practice, along with weekly accountability check-ins, and lots of encouragement. If you are curious about coaching and you want to learn more, you can head to the link in the show notes or go to thephilosophersstem.com. 

As always, please feel free to get in touch! I would love to hear your takeaways, your questions, I would love to say hello if you just want to say hi. The best way to do that is to send me a message at hello@thephilosophersstem.com. You can also find me on Instagram at @thephilosophersstem and get in touch there. I look forward to talking to you again soon, and in the meantime, I encourage you to be creative in your daily choices, including, if it resonates with you, your choice of socks. Thank you for listening, and I’ll talk to you soon.