Workables #3: Art Comes from Abundance
The universe is full of infinitely good ideas and the best way to access them is to practice our craft.
workable
\ ˈwər-kə-bəl \ : capable of being worked.
There are only so many good ideas out there, right?
WRONG.
As I mentioned previously, we often fail to put our best ideas into our practice. When this happens, when we decide not to work on an idea or not to put the idea out there, it’s because we are operating out of a scarcity model. We see creativity as a zero-sum game where all the resources can be used up. There’s only so many good ideas I can have, we tell ourselves, and so we start to hoard them. We worry, for example, that if we act on this idea, one of two “bad” outcomes will happen:
- I will have used up my only really good idea.
- Someone else will come along, take our idea, and make it better.
These two outcomes are completely ridiculous when you come to understand that we actually operate from abundance: the universe is full of infinitely good ideas and the best way to access them is to practice our craft.
When we take this mindset, we understand how ideas really work. Ideas are not loners; they don’t float out in the ether all by themselves waiting to be plucked by the Muse and gifted to us. (Though some artists will tell you that.) Ridiculous!
Ideas come from the interaction between our artistic practice and the real world. Like flint and steel, the interplay between these two creates sparks, and sparks, of course, lead to flames. With our practice, with our craft, we fan the flames. Do it enough and we end up with a full-blown conflagration!
We live in an abundant universe, start creating!
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