Just another hit. One more fix. Always promising to get things done. So happy and high under the influence. Once that wears off it all goes out the window. Frantic for the next big idea, leaving stuff half done or not done at all.
The (Curse of) Idea Junkie.
THE HIGH
You see them everywhere. They blend in with everyone else. Or stand out. Whatever it is you do these days. They visit the coffee shops and those places of interest. You know, the ones where all the cool cats go.
The Idea Junkie.
Functioning on some level, you would never know, they take their hits alongside their coffee. Sharing their meals alongside their Ideas. Enough to make them (ideas) a semi-qausi reality. Not enough to make them tangible. Useful. Real.
Always on the scene, as if networking or being seen at social events equates to being a creative, they squander whatever gifts they may have, because being noticed is trendier than the work it takes to get stuff done.
Leaving the Ideas to sit in the imagination but not in creation.
Good ideas come with a heavy burden. Which is why so few pursue them. So few people can handle it.
Hugh Mcleod
But they’ve shared the idea, so maybe that’s enough for creation/ to be called Creative, in their eye. Beyond that is just a fool’s job, not hero’s work, and they’re beyond that.
In some ways, in their world, talking about the idea is the equivalent to bringing it to life.
THE COMEDOWN
And then the moment passes and the high wears off. It can’t be sustained. Won’t be nurtured. all those broken promises, all those times they said it will be done, are never followed up on. Never made reality.
So many ideas discarded, disregarded. Left behind for the next hit. The next new thing. The next Big thing.
It’s the action in finding inspiration that keeps them going. Not the action in implementing. Sad really. All these ideas that mean nothing, because they never make it out there alive.
But maybe that requires too much sobriety. Too much effort. So grab another coffee, or chai mocha latte.
Is that what’s in these days?
Creativity is the act of turning new and imaginative ideas into reality. Creativity involves two processes: thinking, then producing. Innovation is the production or implementation of an idea. If you have ideas, but don’t act on them, you are imaginative but not creative.”
Linda Naiman
IF ONLY
Cultivating the Idea.
They are dreamers and they are not the only ones. But there are dreamers that do and dreamers that do not.
Those that do, understand that it is a never ending cycle from idea cultivation to reality.That the innovation is in the initiative to get the idea to work. That sometimes it takes self belief. Sometimes it means taking risks. Having a vision of your idea. Connecting the dots as you go. Being passionate and purposeful. Gaining momentum. Seeing where it leads.
The idea of failing inhibits many people from executing any of their own ideas, because hell, what would their friends think? Or the idea of missing the next gig, the next exhibition, the next party stops them from doing the hard work, seeing it through.
So then when someone else activates the idea, brings it to life, The Idea Junkie is all, ‘Well I had that idea years ago.’ Like that is their claim to it.
As if they, ‘liked that idea before it was cool.’ Not accepting that it’s in the action of making that idea a reality, not just the thought or the idea itself, that makes it your own.
I mean, if only.
Oh well, luckily for them, there is always the ‘scene.’
***
So, are you an Idea Junkie – forever dreaming up hair brain schemes and fantasies, but never acting on them?
Or are you A Creative? Someone who takes the best ideas and implements the necessary steps to bring them to life?