Calling all muses

Posted in Creativity

I believe in  muses.  This wonderful goddesses were once considered the source of all knowledge, creation and art.  If you believe ideas come from somewhere else, you are much more humble, you pay much more attention and you will have much more respect for the creative process.

The first thing you have to know is that nobody can have an idea.  You cannot have it because ideas are not yours from the very beginning, ideas come to you.  Ideas are not a possession.

Do not chaise an idea, let the idea come to you.  If you are desperate for an idea, have had fifty cups of coffee and you think your whole professional career will depend on the results of this idea, it is very unlikely it will come to you.

You have to seduce the idea,  extremely creative people have great ideas all the time because they are attractive to those ideas.  How to be attractive?

Define what you are looking for. The more you know what you want, the easier will be to get it.  At the other hand this is pretty much like looking for a girlfriend or boyfriend, you could specify almost everything about the perfect partner for you, chances are you will meet  Misses or Mister perfect, and it might happen that you never not felt in love with him or her.  Good ideas are exactly what you need and exiting too, do not get marry with the first idea you get! There are more ideas than people.

You have to feed the idea. Offer stimulating things, like something you read in a book, watch in a good movie, or remember from the last time you went to a museum.  At the end you do not know what this idea likes to eat, so the best thing you can do is try different things, know a little bit of everything, travel a lot and talk to any kind of people without judging them.  Ideas get nurture by similar ideas.  If you only consume low quality ideas, at the end you will attract only garbage.

Show commitment and respect. If an idea comes to you, you have to honor it.  Write it down, test it, give it the change to be part of the material world.  If the idea is big enough work really hard, and fight for it.  If the idea was not exactly what you needed, kiss it good bye, say thank you and wish it well, chances are it will come back in ten years, visits another person, and will change the world. This idea came to you because it trusted you, and more ideas will be paying attention to what you are doing with this one once you get it.  This is also applicable to somebody else’s ideas too.

As I said, I believe in muses and sometimes we fool ourselves trying too hard on defining if we are or not creative.  But the way I see it, is that what we call a creative person is only a messenger bringing that idea from one dimension to another.  How can I be so sure that I know that?  There will be one day one when I will not be here, in this world, but the ideas that came to me will remain.